Re: [Ugnet] Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?
*I am in Toronto but we still can exchange ideas. Mitayo Potosi* On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Mitayo Potosi mitayopoto...@gmail.comwrote: Dear Mr Sseppuuya,*Re: Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?* *It is sad that East Africa, following the colonial masters, has all those incompetent lawyers in charge of our destiny. In our time there used to be streaming in schools. The best students, generally went into Science subjects and the second rate into Arts. Look at the likes of Peter Kabatsi, Sam Kuteesa, Elly Karuhanga, VP Ssekandi, Nuwa Amanya-Mushega, the late Omwony Ojok, Justice Ralph Ochan and all of those lawyers. None of them studied Maths/Numeracy beyond Senior Two. **Can you imagine it is these that negotiate contracts about the Oil fields? Yes fellows who got zero in Maths in S.2 at Budo are now in charge. Monsanto takes over the seed stock of East Africa after negotiating with guys who went to law school because they had some good grade in Religious studies or Shakespearean Literature or something of the sort. I once had a communication with the Dean of the Law Faculty at Makerere. He wrote to me that Science or Maths have nothing to do with Law. That Scientists here go to law school to avoid unemployment !!!* * In the West Law School is some kind of Graduate School (called post-graduate in Uganda). Here, after Engineering School many go to Law School. After an undergraduate in Molecular and or Cell Biology one goes to Law school. It is such calibre of scholars that eventually found pharmaceutical and chemical industries, become the heads of Industry, or join** Government to write the Law** to protect citizens**, or work on patents**. Some of our lawyers have never had a class in basic science. Senior two Biology is just not good enough. The fraud here in the West is that the leaders in society are mostly clergy and lawyers. In China before 1945 Chairman Mao was a librarian. But the others -- Prime Minister Chu-en-Lai, General Lin Piao etc... were all engineers. Their Cabinets are mostly scientists and engineers. How do the lawyers - Obama and gang, compare with the Chinese in infrastructure building? Take the three Gorges Dam, Super highways, Bullet trains etc. America's Amtrak is a sick joke. What are your views on this issue? My other beef is that Three-year degrees ought to be phased out in Uganda. Let us have only four-year degrees. Mitayo Potosi. ==* *Re: Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?* Posted Tuesday, July 26 2011 at 00:00 Share This Story Sharehttp://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monitor.co.ug%2FOpEd%2FCommentary%2F-%2F689364%2F1207614%2F-%2F12t908cz%2F-%2Findex.htmlt=Daily%20Monitor%3A%20%C2%A0-%20Commentary%C2%A0%7CLawyers%2C%20lawyers%20everywhere.%20It%20is%20the%20rule%20of%20law%2C%20or%20is%20it%3Fsrc=sp Full disclosure: For my undergraduate studies, I wanted to pursue law, having determined as a child that I would be a lawyer. I discounted the rather simplistic yet simple opinion that I had overheard my mother telling her sister, when I was 8 or 9 years old, that “lawyers are the people who say a thief did not steal”. When the time came I did apply, but Makerere Law School did not take me as I did not score the requisite marks at A-Level. I was therefore left to admire from the sidelines as many schoolmates made it into Law School. Many are now sound lawyers, magistrates and judges. It was during university time also that the broader rule of law was restored when the NRA swept to power, banishing state-inspired terror, re-establishing courts of law, and the revamping of the Uganda Law Society. The superstructure was rebuilt. But what is happening within the superstructure? One of the small benefits of travelling is the opportunity to see how things work elsewhere, or how they do not work in your country. A sojourn across the Malaba border point will instantly reveal that Kenya actually respects road reserves. They do not build in them the way Ugandans do. There is a by-law of preserving road reserves, and one suspects that Kenya’s road reserves by-law is the same as Uganda’s. This is only one of the many contraventions of law/statute/guideline that Ugandans happily live with. A few others: * Traffic laws: One-way streets, traffic lights, shoulders, speed limits, overtaking, helmets, seatbelts, talking on phone, drink-driving, tinted windows, motorcycle passenger limits *Construction: Many by-laws governing building are ignored * Copyright: TV stations and film halls translate wantonly; publications and music stations pirate *Registration of births/deaths: Births should be in 3 months, deaths in 1 month *Littering *Firearms *First-come, first-served (not law, but good behaviour) *Noise: Discos and churches *Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: Overloading of
Re: [Ugnet] Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?
Dear Mr Sseppuuya,*Re: Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?* *It is sad that East Africa, following the colonial masters, has all those incompetent lawyers in charge of our destiny. In our time there used to be streaming in schools. The best students, generally went into Science subjects and the second rate into Arts. Look at the likes of Peter Kabatsi, Sam Kuteesa, Elly Karuhanga, VP Ssekandi, Nuwa Amanya-Mushega, the late Omwony Ojok, Justice Ralph Ochan and all of those lawyers. None of them studied Maths/Numeracy beyond Senior Two. **Can you imagine it is these that negotiate contracts about the Oil fields? Yes fellows who got zero in Maths in S.2 at Budo are now in charge. Monsanto takes over the seed stock of East Africa after negotiating with guys who went to law school because they had some good grade in Religious studies or Shakespearean Literature or something of the sort. I once had a communication with the Dean of the Law Faculty at Makerere. He wrote to me that Science or Maths have nothing to do with Law. That Scientists here go to law school to avoid unemployment !!!* * In the West Law School is some kind of Graduate School (called post-graduate in Uganda). Here, after Engineering School many go to Law School. After an undergraduate in Molecular and or Cell Biology one goes to Law school. It is such calibre of scholars that eventually found pharmaceutical and chemical industries, become the heads of Industry, or join** Government to write the Law** to protect citizens**, or work on patents**. Some of our lawyers have never had a class in basic science. Senior two Biology is just not good enough. The fraud here in the West is that the leaders in society are mostly clergy and lawyers. In China before 1945 Chairman Mao was a librarian. But the others -- Prime Minister Chu-en-Lai, General Lin Piao etc... were all engineers. Their Cabinets are mostly scientists and engineers. How do the lawyers - Obama and gang, compare with the Chinese in infrastructure building? Take the three Gorges Dam, Super highways, Bullet trains etc. America's Amtrak is a sick joke. What are your views on this issue? My other beef is that Three-year degrees ought to be phased out in Uganda. Let us have only four-year degrees. Mitayo Potosi. ==* *Re: Lawyers, lawyers everywhere. It is the rule of law, or is it?* Posted Tuesday, July 26 2011 at 00:00 Share This Story Sharehttp://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monitor.co.ug%2FOpEd%2FCommentary%2F-%2F689364%2F1207614%2F-%2F12t908cz%2F-%2Findex.htmlt=Daily%20Monitor%3A%20%C2%A0-%20Commentary%C2%A0%7CLawyers%2C%20lawyers%20everywhere.%20It%20is%20the%20rule%20of%20law%2C%20or%20is%20it%3Fsrc=sp Full disclosure: For my undergraduate studies, I wanted to pursue law, having determined as a child that I would be a lawyer. I discounted the rather simplistic yet simple opinion that I had overheard my mother telling her sister, when I was 8 or 9 years old, that “lawyers are the people who say a thief did not steal”. When the time came I did apply, but Makerere Law School did not take me as I did not score the requisite marks at A-Level. I was therefore left to admire from the sidelines as many schoolmates made it into Law School. Many are now sound lawyers, magistrates and judges. It was during university time also that the broader rule of law was restored when the NRA swept to power, banishing state-inspired terror, re-establishing courts of law, and the revamping of the Uganda Law Society. The superstructure was rebuilt. But what is happening within the superstructure? One of the small benefits of travelling is the opportunity to see how things work elsewhere, or how they do not work in your country. A sojourn across the Malaba border point will instantly reveal that Kenya actually respects road reserves. They do not build in them the way Ugandans do. There is a by-law of preserving road reserves, and one suspects that Kenya’s road reserves by-law is the same as Uganda’s. This is only one of the many contraventions of law/statute/guideline that Ugandans happily live with. A few others: * Traffic laws: One-way streets, traffic lights, shoulders, speed limits, overtaking, helmets, seatbelts, talking on phone, drink-driving, tinted windows, motorcycle passenger limits *Construction: Many by-laws governing building are ignored * Copyright: TV stations and film halls translate wantonly; publications and music stations pirate *Registration of births/deaths: Births should be in 3 months, deaths in 1 month *Littering *Firearms *First-come, first-served (not law, but good behaviour) *Noise: Discos and churches *Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: Overloading of cows on trucks, chicken on bicycles and buses *Registration of places of worship; marrying in a registered place *Rabies Act: Police have power to seize, detain or destroy stray animals *Smoking in public places *Enguli Act:
