AMIN AND OBOTE
Ugandans,
look at this, and we shall either agree or accept to disagree, but as far as i am concerned, Uganda is better now than it was many years ago.
1) In 1986, we lined up for basics like sugar, salt, tea etc because the factories were no longer producing. Today you can buy these basic items from the remotest part of the country.
2) In 1986 we had 1 television station, now we have 25!
3) In 1986 we had 36,000 phone lines, all of them fixed in towns. We now have 10 million phone lines!
4) In 1986 we had one university teaching 1,500 students every year, we now have 30 universities teaching 110,000 students every year.
5) In 1986 around 2 million pupils went to primary school, we now have 7 million pupils in primary school.
6) In 1986 there was only two TV sets in my village, now 4 out of 5 homes in my village have got a television set.
7) In 1986 we had one radio station, we now have 200 radio stations in the country.
8) In 1986 we had 15,000 vehicles in the country, there are over 700,000 vehicles now.
9) In 1986 Kampala was the famed city of 7 hills, it has 20 hills today.
10) In 1986 the construction industry was growing at 1%, it is now growing at 15% annually and there are examples to see.
11) In 1986 Karuma-Arua road was murram, it is now tarmac, Busunju-Hoima road was murram, it is now taramac, Mityana-Mubende, Fortportal-Kasese was murram, it is now tarmac, Mbale-Tirinyi was murram, it is now tarmac, Mbrara-Kabale was murram, it is now tarmac etc…
12) In 1986 you had ’22′ district hospitals, you now have a health center at every sub-county.
Joshua Kato
Newvision Journalist/UAH forumist
Comments
Good observation.
However, in what specific ways is the common woman, man or child better off?
What % of debt is incurred by every Ugandan currently?
What % of the funds meant for the public actually reaches them?
Mr. Joshua Kato, one need to applaud your sincerity in the way you expressed the developments or improvements in Uganda. But will also ask, “who bares the burden of these improvements?” It is a very excellent analysis of how to show a long journey trecked… and the diatance that is left ahead of all.
Yes, education (not the value), hopsitals (no the value & cost), schools, Tv & radio stations, and vehicles (in what condition?) have illustrated much improvement in either usage or number. This is the kind of statistics that we need to see where the country is going. Could you now provide statistics of
a) the number of people in th country
b) i) the number of people getting education that is: quality primary, then secondary, and then university.
ii) the ease of acquiring this education (especially secondary and university), and how many people go (or not) to higher institutions
c) What is Uganda’s poverty line? And how many people are under (and or above) the poverty line? What makes the poverty line? howmany can acquire the basic needs today easily? And what are the basic needs today?
d) Please compare years and tell the forum when was Uganda stronger economically and why? And how much more aid did we need then than today?
The cause of lack we thought was deemed to the infestion of the country by war that people could not go to work or access the basic need otherwise things were cheaper in the seventies and the value of the Ugandan shilling was higher than the value now (please investigate); trade was smoother and international relations were stronger even before Amin (ofcourse)…
You have to be realistic to know that the hospitals and businesses that are arround Uganda seem to be viewed by the activities in Kampala. To know that Uganda is moving, It seems all the analysis was made on Kampala, Mbarara and a few places. Did you know that health services were free(cheaper)? Did you know that people from Gulu, Masaka, Gombe, and many areas needed not to go to Kampala for medication because they had hospitals (and Mulago was a referal hospital)? Yes these hospitals were in place even before 1986 but people have resented them to go to Mulago, Nsambya (Kampala Hospitals). Do you realise that people cannot see their areas developing apart from Buganda particularly Kampala and everyone wants a piece of it, regardless of the loss they might make (like buildings crushing) at the expense of their own home areas? Is it true that the remmunerations in Uganda both privately owned business and the payment of civil servants is low and in very many areas they are in arreas (please investigate)?
How are other areas going to be attractive to Ugandans like Kampala so that they can enjoy the benefit of trade, fair allocation of resources, and better remmunerations?
One could be wrong, but how can we add on what is exitent, to see Uganda move even further forward and better off?
Enough! Wants Peace In Sudan But War In Congo
Posted by A. Rwaga
June 14th, 2009
Go figure. Enough! wants Sudan’s Omar Hassan al-Bashir behind bars; but wants U.S. support for Uganda’s Museveni
[Global: Commentary]
it’s the project “to end genocide and crimes against humanity.”
Yet it is spearheading a project that could do the exact opposite.
Enough! is advocating yet another invasion of the DR Congo by Ugandan forces supposedly to capture or kill Joseph Kony and his treacherous LRA with additional reinforcement and assistance by the United States.
Enough! Demands for a U.S.-assisted “Operation Lightning Thunder II)”; this follows the dismal failure of “Operation Lightning-Thunder 1”, an attack on LRA positions inside the Congo by Ugandan troops assisted by the U.S. in December 2008, the last month of the George W. Bush government.
For 23 years all military operations against this notorious LRA have failed. Failure means that thousands of innocent people have been killed by both sides. Over a million people have been displaced in Uganda into wretched camps from which more people died of preventable diseases than from the conflict itself, literally in the hundreds of thousands.
Thousands have been killed and displaced in DRC as a result of the Uganda operation aided by Bush. Human rights organizations have reported that women and children have been abducted and subjected to torture and rape if not used as porters and then killed.
The fragile peace that was gained for two years in the region as the LRA and the Ugandan government negotiated peace was destroyed by President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to attack. The talks were undermined, some say because of Museveni’s maneuverings behind the scenes and Kony’s refusal to sign the final peace accords.
Against this background of bloodshed and failed military operations Enough! is propagating yet another invasion of DRC by Uganda’s army, the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF). This time, for it to succeed, the US should take a more active role, Enough! claims.
The whole idea is ridiculous and has only tragic possible outcomes. Enough! would have us believe that this time would be different because civilians would be “protected” and there would be “humanitarian” and “developmental assistance.”
This is preposterous rhetoric for American home consumption. The US has had a terrible record of “protecting civilians” in any of its own wars; how will it be able to ensure the protection of civilians in a Ugandan-army spearheaded war?
President Museveni of Uganda is the author of the abysmal camps in the northern part of Uganda, where the World Health Organization in 2005 reported that up to 1,000 civilians died per week. Apparently left unprotected deliberately, and one could be forgiven for thinking that he intended for as many people to die in the camps as possible because until the very end he did nothing to improve the conditions in which people were forced to live. They were left to die “like grasshoppers trapped in a bottle.” This is a phrase which President Museveni will recognize.
Museveni regarded the Administration of President Bush as his friend and ally. The Museveni government has earned notoriety as being one of the world’s most corrupt regimes. One would have hoped that the present government of the US would distance itself from such regimes. Apparently President Museveni serves the interests of the US.
Now while all these militias, rebel groups, and armies have been causing horrific wars at great cost to human lives in central Africa, so-called developed countries have been enjoying a lifestyle that is sustained in large part by the resources that come from Africa. The DRC supplies the world’s diamonds, coltan, tantalite, oil, and so forth.
DRC diamonds find their way to Western nations through Uganda. Western multinational corporations have no trouble hiring militias or mercenaries who deal with the warlords and militias in order to illegally extract these resources.
The warlords and militias hold the civilian population in what can only be called modern day slavery, human life meaning nothing to those in power or to the corporations.
Western governments know this but turn a blind eye. We rarely hear a peep from Enough! who supposedly oppose crimes against humanity and genocide.
In previous wars perpetrated by Uganda in DRC seven million people died and the UPDF plundered DRC as documented in numerous United Nations report and Human Rights Watch reports–Please see “Ituri Covered In Blood”
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703.pdf
In 2005 also the International Court of Justice ruled against Uganda for the Congo crimes and awarded $10 billion to Congo.
Please see: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf
Is there a hidden agenda behind Enough’s! advocating for another U.S.-backed Uganda invasion of Congo? Whose tail is wagging which dog?