[Ugnet] Top Taxpayers
These companies are apparently the "cash cows" of Uganda government. They, plus 990 other tax contributors, contributed 84% of total tax revenues collected for the last financial year. What is the population of Uganda? Now, do you really need to read the entire article to see how African manpowers are being descimated systematically by these quasi leaders, some, like Mu7 postured as Marxist before coming to power? Most if not all of these companies are foreign owned, siphoning profits to countries of origin. So, what are in store for wananchi? Exploitation, exploitation and exploitations!! What about the tax monies collected? Personal coffers!! Unfortunately many of our so called intellectuals and learned persons, will read the entire article and would not even see what I am driving at, for the artilce mentioned nothing in relation to African manpower; the reason Africans are a thousand years behind all races!! Thats the problem with our past and even present intellectuals! Only violence will stop these idiots, trust me. Otherwise, the country and its indigents are doom! Its even amazing how the writer could write without critical analysis on a broader perspective on this. Ocii ^^^ Top taxpayersPETER NYANZIKAMPALA MORE than 84 percent of the total revenue collected by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) last financial year was from the top 1,000 taxpayers, a list released by the tax body yesterday indicates. Top on the list for the third year running; was telecommunications giant MTN, which saw its tax contribution soar to Shs174billion - indicating a growth of Shs54 billion up from the Shs120 billion paid the previous year. This means that Ugandans spend more money on airtime than on any other service, with the other two phone networks, utl and Celtel also in the top 20. The three paid over Shs 208bn. Partly as a result of the power crisis, Ugandans are also continually consuming more petroleum products, a fact that has propelled oil company Shell Uganda - to the second position with Shs140.86 billion. Shell's tax contributions have grown by Shs35 billion from Shs105.5 billion paid the previous year. Ugandans are also gulping more alcohol, giving Uganda Breweries and Nile Breweries third and fourthposition respectively among the top taxpayers - for the second year in a row. At about Shs110 billion, Uganda Breweries Ltd paid twice more taxes than it did in 2005/06; while Nile Breweries paid about Shs60 billion, up from about Shs49 billion the previous year. With its taxes growing to about Shs50 billion from Shs45 billion, BATU bounced back from seventh position the previous year, to wrest the sixth position from Total Uganda. But the fastest riser among the top 20 was thermal power company Aggreko, which in 10th position, saw its tax payments grow from Shs20.85 billion in the previous year to Shs37.77 billion during the period under review. URA Assistant Commissioner for Public and Corporate Affairs Patrick Mukiibi congratulated the top 1,000 tax payers for making it to the list. "We do appreciate their support throughout the year and wish them the very best for the new year as well," he said. He said the tax body has planned a Taxpayers' Appreciation Day on September 15 at which some of the top taxpayers will be recognised. Utility company Umeme, which saw its tax payments go up to about Shs34 billion from Shs19 billion - an indicator that more consumers are now probably paying for their power. In the banking sector, Bank of Uganda joined the top 15 for the first time with a contribution of Shs35 billion up from just Shs10 billion the previous year on the back of an increase in withholding tax which shot up to more than Shs26 billion. But the year was not particularly good for Stanbic Bank, whose taxes dropped by about Shs1 billion to Shs32.3 billion, which saw it drop from 10th position the previous year to 15th. Celtel, which last month hit the one million-subscriber mark, also saw its taxes almost double from Shs11.2 billion to Shs21 billion. Currently, more than 8 percent of the total revenue is contributed by the three telecommunications companies. Interestingly, the number of companies paying over Shs1 billion also grew from 237 the previous year to 264. Additionally, the last of the top 1,000 paid about Shs185 million up from Shs170 million - both sure indicators that more and more companies are becoming more profitable. Monitor Publications Ltd also joined the club of companies paying more than Shs4 billion in taxes for the first time in its 15-year history. In the period under review, Finance Minister Dr Ezra Suruma projected total revenue collections at about Shs2,567 billion of which taxes were estimated at Shs2,525 bn and non-URA revenue at Shs42 bn. But only months into the financial year, the government ra
[Ugnet] Malis Farmers Discover a Weeds Pote ntial Power
New York Times, September 9, 2007 Malis Farmers Discover a Weeds Potential Power By LYDIA POLGREEN KOULIKORO, Mali When Suleiman Diarra Bananis brother said that the poisonous black seeds dropping from the seemingly worthless weed that had grown around his family farm for decades could be used to run a generator, or even a car, Mr. Banani did not believe him. When he suggested that they intersperse the plant, until now used as a natural fence between rows of their regular crops edible millet, peanuts, corn and beans he thought his older brother, Dadjo, was crazy. Candace Feit for The New York Times Suleiman Diarra Banani is now growing jatropha on his family farm in Koulikoro, Mali. I thought it was a plant for old ladies to make soap, he said. But now that a plant called jatropha is being hailed by scientists and policy makers as a potentially ideal source of biofuel, a plant that can grow in marginal soil or beside food crops, that does not require a lot of fertilizer and yields many times as much biofuel per acre planted as corn and many other potential biofuels. By planting a row of jatropha for every seven rows of regular crops, Mr. Banani could double his income on the field in the first year and lose none of his usual yield from his field. Poor farmers living on a wide band of land on both sides of the equator are planting it on millions of acres, hoping to turn their rockiest, most unproductive fields into a biofuel boom. They are spurred on by big oil companies like BP and the British biofuel giant D1 Oils, which are investing millions of dollars in jatropha cultivation. The New York Times Jatropha grows in places like Koulikoro with little rainfall. Countries like India, China, the Philippines and Malaysia are starting huge plantations, betting that jatropha will help them to become more energy independent and even export biofuel. It is too soon to say whether jatropha will be viable as a commercial biofuel, scientists say, and farmers in India are already expressing frustration that after being encouraged to plant huge swaths of the bush they have found no buyers for the seeds. But here in Mali, one of the poorest nations on earth, a number of small-scale projects aimed at solving local problems the lack of electricity and rural poverty are blossoming across the country to use the existing supply of jatropha to fuel specially modified generators in villages far off the electrical grid. We are focused on solving our own energy problems and reducing poverty, said Aboubacar Samaké, director of a government project aimed at promoting renewable energy. If it helps the world, that is good, too. Jatropha originated in Central America and is believed to have been spread around the world by Portuguese explorers. In Mali, a landlocked former French colony, it has been used for decades by farmers as a living fence that keeps grazing animals off their fields the smell and the taste of the plant repel grazing animals and a guard against erosion, keeping rich topsoil from being blown away by the harsh Sahel winds. The Royal Tropical Institute, a nonprofit research institution in Amsterdam that has been working to develop jatropha as a commercial biofuel, estimates that there are 22,000 linear kilometers, or more than 13,000 miles, of the bush in Mali. Jatrophas proponents say it avoids the major pitfalls of other biofuels, which pose significant environmental and social risks. Places that struggle to feed their populations, like Mali and the rest of the arid Sahel region, can scarcely afford to give up cultivable land for growing biofuel crops. Other potential biofuels, like palm oil, have encountered resistance by environmentalists because plantations have encroached on rain forests and other natural habitats. But jatropha can grow on virtually barren land with relatively little rainfall, so it can be planted in places where food does not grow well. It can also be planted beside other crops farmers grow here, like millet, peanuts and beans, without substantially reducing the yield of the fields; it may even help improve output of food crops by, among other things, preventing erosion and keeping animals out. Other biofuels like ethanol from corn and sugar cane require large amounts of water and fertilizer, and factory farming in some cases consumes substantial amounts of petroleum, making the environmental benefits limited, critics say. But jatropha requires no pesticides, Mr. Samaké said, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts. The plant is promising enough that companies across the world are looking at planting millions of acres of jatropha in the next few years, in places as far flung as Brazil, China, India and Swaziland. A company based in Singapore
[Ugnet] Bird-Brained African "genius" dead at 31
New York Times, September 10, 2007 Alex, a Parrot Who Had a Way With Words, Dies By BENEDICT CAREY He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with his own brand of one-liners he established himself in TV shows, scientific reports, and news articles as perhaps the worlds most famous talking bird. But last week Alex, an African Grey parrot, died, apparently of natural causes, said Dr. Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis University and Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most of its life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals. The parrot was 31. Scientists have long debated whether any other species can develop the ability to learn human language. Alexs language facility was, in some ways, more surprising than the feats of primates that have been taught American Sign Language, like Koko the gorilla, trained by Penny Patterson at the Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org in Woodside, Calif., or Washoe the chimpanzee, studied by R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner at the University of Nevada in the 1960s and 1970s. When, in 1977, Dr. Pepperberg, then a doctoral student in chemistry at Harvard, bought Alex from a pet store, scientists had little expectation that any bird could learn to communicate with humans. Most of the research had been done in pigeons, and was not promising. But by using novel methods of teaching, Dr. Pepperberg prompted Alex to learn about 150 words, which he could put into categories, and to count small numbers, as well as colors and shapes. The work revolutionized the way we think of bird brains, said Diana Reiss, a psychologist at Hunter College who works with dolphins and elephants. That used to be a pejorative, but now we look at those brains at least Alexs with some awe. Other scientists, while praising the research, cautioned against characterizing Alexs abilities as human. The parrot learned to communicate in basic expressions but it did not show the sort of logic and ability to generalize that children acquire at an early age, they said. Theres no evidence of recursive logic, and without that you cant work with digital numbers or more complex human grammar, said David Premack, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pepperberg used an innovative approach to teach Alex. African Greys are social birds, and pick up some group dynamics very quickly. In experiments, Dr. Pepperberg would employ one trainer to, in effect, compete with Alex for a small reward, like a grape. Alex learned to ask for the grape by observing what the trainer was doing to get it; the researchers then worked with the bird to help shape the pronunciation of the words. Alex showed surprising facility. For example, when shown a blue paper triangle, he could tell an experimenter what color the paper was, what shape it was, and after touching it what it was made of. He demonstrated off some of his skills on nature shows, including programs on the BBC and PBS. He famously shared scenes with the actor Alan Alda on the PBS series, Look Whos Talking. Like parrots can, he also picked up one-liners from hanging around the lab, like calm down, and good morning. He could express frustration, or apparent boredom, and his cognitive and language skills appeared to be about as competent as those in trained primates. His accomplishments have also inspired further work with African Grey parrots; two others, named Griffin and Arthur, are a part of Dr. Pepperbergs continuing research program. Even up through last week, Alex was working with Dr. Pepperberg on compound words and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the night last Thursday, Dr. Pepperberg said, Alex looked at her and said: You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you. He was found dead in his cage the next morning, and was determined to have died late Thursday night. - Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Africanc suffering mercilessly -- again
September 10, 2007 Drugs Banned, Many of Worlds Poor Suffer in Pain By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. WATERLOO, Sierra Leone Although the rainy season was coming on fast, Zainabu Sesay was in no shape to help her husband. Ditches had to be dug to protect their cassava and peanuts, and their mud huts palm roof was sliding off. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Zainabu Sesay, at her home in Sierra Leone, receives hospice care, but no morphine is available to ease the pain of breast cancer But Mrs. Sesay was sick. She had breast cancer in a form that Western doctors rarely see anymore the tumor had burst through her skin, looking like a putrid head of cauliflower weeping small amounts of blood at its edges. September 10, 2007 The New York Times It bone! It boooe lie de fi-yuh! she said of the pain it burns like fire in Krio, the blended language spoken in this country where British colonizers resettled freed slaves. No one had directly told her yet, but there was no hope the cancer was also in her lymph glands and ribs. Like millions of others in the worlds poorest countries, she is destined to die in pain. She cannot get the drug she needs one that is cheap, effective, perfectly legal for medical uses under treaties signed by virtually every country, made in large quantities, and has been around since Hippocrates praised its source, the opium poppy. She cannot get morphine. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times A SEARING BURN Momoh Sesay, 2, with his mother, Marie, at the Ola During Childrens Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was badly burned by boiling water. That is not merely because of her poverty, or that of Sierra Leone. Narcotics incite fear: doctors fear addicting patients, and law enforcement officials fear drug crime. Often, the government elite who can afford medicine for themselves are indifferent to the sufferings of the poor. The World Health Organization estimates that 4.8 million people a year with moderate to severe cancer pain receive no appropriate treatment. Nor do another 1.4 million with late-stage AIDS. For other causes of lingering pain burns, car accidents, gunshots, diabetic nerve damage, sickle-cell disease and so on it issues no estimates but believes that millions go untreated. Figures gathered by the International Narcotics Control Board, a United Nations agency, make it clear: citizens of rich nations suffer less. Six countries the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Australia consume 79 percent of the worlds morphine, according to a 2005 estimate. The poor and middle-income countries where 80 percent of the worlds people live consumed only about 6 percent. Some countries imported virtually none. Even if the president gets cancer pain, he will get no analgesia, said Willem Scholten, a World Health Organization official who studies the issue. In 2004, consumption of morphine per person in the United States was about 17,000 times that in Sierra Leone. At pain conferences, doctors from Africa describe patients whose pain is so bad that they have chosen other remedies: hanging themselves or throwing themselves in front of trucks. Westerners tend to assume that most people in tropical countries die of malaria, AIDS, worm diseases and unpronounceable ills. But as vaccines, antibiotics and AIDS drugs become more common, more and more are surviving past measles, infections, birth complications and other sources of a quick death. They grow old enough to die slowly of cancer. About half the six million cancer deaths in the world last year were in poor countries, and most diagnoses were made late, when death was inevitable. But first, there was agony. About 80 percent of all cancer victims suffer severe pain, the W.H.O. estimates, as do half of those dying of AIDS. Morphines raw ingredient opium is not in short supply. Poppies are grown for heroin, of course, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But vast fields for morphine and codeine are also grown in India, Turkey, France, Australia and other countries. Nor is it expensive, even by the standards of developing nations. One hospice in Uganda, for example, mixes its own liquid morphine so cheaply that a three-week supply costs less than a loaf of bread. Nonetheless, it is still routinely denied in many poor countries. Its the intense fear of addiction, which is often misunderstood, said David E. Joranson, director of the Pain Policy Study Group at the University of Wisconsins medical school, who has worked to change drugs laws around the world. Pain relief hasnt been given as much attention as the war on drugs has. Doctors in developing countries, he explained, often have beliefs about narcotics that prevailed in Western medical schools decades ago that they are inevitably addictive, carry high risks of k
[Ugnet] South Africa's peace initiatives falling apart
South Africa's peace initiatives falling apartJean-Jacques
Cornish 10 September 2007 06:00
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Things have gone distinctly pear-shaped in South Africa's two most prized
mediation subjects -- the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi.
Governments put in place in both these countries as a result of South
African-brokered peace processes last week saw a repeat of bodies in the
streets and floods of refugees, reminiscent of their days of civil war.
In the DRC's volatile eastern province of North Kivu, government forces have
twice used helicopter gunships to drive off rebels from Sake -- gateway to the
regional capital of Goma.
Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda is calling for a resumption of peace talks after
losing at least 60 men. He says Joseph Kabila is siding with Rwandan Hutus who
have been hiding out in the DRC since being involved in that country's 1994
genocide involving Tutsis and Hutu moderates.
Kabila is under regional pressure to crack down on Nkunda, who cooperated with
him in allowing a peaceful election process in the DRC last year. The rebel
general has recently welcomed back into his ranks many of his soldiers who had
been integrated into the new Congolese forces.
The setback in Burundi is potentially more profound. Fighting this week between
factions of the last rebel movement still active left 25 soldiers and one
civilian dead on the streets of the capital, Bujumbura.
The leader of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), Agathon Rwasa, has now
totally rejected the mediation of South Africa's Safety and Security Minister,
Charles Nqakula.
"This is not anything directed against the South African mediation. But we have
totally lost faith in the methodology of Nqakula and his team," FNL
spokesperson Pasteur Habimana told the Mail & Guardian by telephone from Dar es
Salaam. "For months he has delayed the integration process. He promised our
fighters protection and food after we signed the truce with the government a
year ago and we have received neither.
"We came to Butere district in Bujumbura to restore the order within the FNL
and show the international community and Burundians that Agathon Rwasa has the
FNL combatants behind him. Nqakula has turned a blind eye to the Burundi
government's support of the faction fighting us in Bujumbura this week. The
government has been supplying weapons and food to these men, some of whom are
not members of the FNL."
Burundi's Defence Minister, Germain Niyoyankana, accepts that his government
did not act quickly enough when the FNL dissidents split claiming they had not
received any benefit from the truce signed by Rwasa and charging the FNL leader
with delaying the ceasefire process. "We recognise that we did not take it
seriously," he told reporters after the fighting broke out.
Niyoyankana says the army will protect the dissidents until they can be moved
out of Bujumbura to await implementation of the ceasefire. This could be a
delicate and protracted business. Conflict analyst Jan van Eck, who has
specialised in the Burundi machinations, told the M&G: "If the FNL refuses to
talk to the mediation, the whole peace process faces total deadlock and could
actually be falling apart."
The FNL has repeatedly accused the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza of
acting in bad faith by delaying the process of bringing them into Burundi's
government, administration and military.
In July, FNL leaders waiting in Bujumbura to negotiate this process slipped
away from their South African protectors and went back into the bush.
Regional leaders are planning another summit to discuss this Burundi imbroglio
and get Nkurunziza across a table with Rwasa, but no date has been set.
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