Challenges of Institutional growth-Uganda

In building a strong market and a competent state at least two elements are needed. First the rulers must feel sufficiently threatened to need the cooperation of some groups typically the rich and powerful in civil society in order to stay in power. Every society in a development transition must acknowledge the value of these centers of power and Uganda is just with in this bracket. Secondly, the rich and powerful actors in civil society( Genuine Business People) must find it in their immediate interest to demand the rule of law. The rule of law works for the common good of society.http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/nation_building/

The object is the need to constrain the state from abusing its power. The state without any counter-weight often has elements whose tendency is domination and especially so in states in a transition to functionality. Is there a group of rich and powerful people in the civil society that threatens the power of the state in Uganda? Reason revolutions fail in Africa and other developing countries is because they are not grounded in any visible ideological doctrine.Structural societal stratfication in economic terms is homogenously peasantry. The elite is a producte of peasantry and just a group of enlightened peasants with no economic power except for potential representation of their tribal or ethnic origin at the center. The reason the cycle of corruption is a constant even with regime changes is because of institutional decay,lack of it and pure stagnation a result of a low quality human resource.

Regime changes in Africa have been violent because there is no sense of ownerhip of property by the majority of the people. The militant group is characterized by a peasant movement manipulated by a small ethnic elite with a seemingly justified cause under a revolution banner.http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/social/elias/state.htm. In Africa ethnic and tribal interests are at the core of politics rather than economic classes due the peasant homogenity. In organized societies, Civil society is important to the extent that powerful groups can constrain the state from abusing its power and demand reforms that protect their property rights. In thinking about powerful actors in Uganda we must emphasize the relationships between and among the donor community, the state, business community and the NGO sector. Has Uganda developed a solid business community strong enough to threaten the state? What is the state of Uganda’s civil society today? Has the business community developed a sufficient voice to question the state? What is currently the most important political consituency in Uganda? Is it the Citizens, the donor community or civil society in relation to the state?In answering these questions I will explain why Uganda suffers from a low momentum of institutional development and an almost unstoppable economic haemorrhage with the current trend. The private sector in Uganda is still small and the powerful and rich politically god-fathered or fused with the state. All private companies doing shoddy work building collapsing classrooms belong to the politicians or their relatives, companies doing shoddy work in building low quality roads in Kampala or any other are accomplices of politicians. There is fusion between those manning the state and the wealthy in Uganda meaning the rich and powerful do not regard the rule of law as important. The civil society which encompasses the Business community in Uganda is mainly what would be termed as the Third Tier in organized societies. In Uganda the business community does not view itself as part of civil society because indeed practically it is not. Those who would champion the cause of civil society are politically connected therefore rich and powerful and fused with the state and their role in society compromised. They do shoddy work and share they proceeds with state managers in return for protection. They therefore do not respect the rule of law and to the contrary the rule of law diminishes their power and wealth.They evade taxes with state protection meaning they do not respect the rule of law and therefore cannot constrain excesses of the state which they are part of by association or default. It is this relationship that fuels and perpetuates corruption.

The state is highly donor dependent with official budget support to a tune of approximately 50%. The economic management in Uganda is mainly donor driven with conditional credit facilities and grants from IMF/WB or other bilateral donors. Donor dependence creates a lack of a localized agenda and ownership by government and citizens. A donor driven agenda distorts societal political evolution as it mandates donors a bigger political constituency than the citizens in relation to state. The lack of a localized sense of ownership in a way perpetuates corruption in both the civil and public service as state managers look up to the donor community as a foreign master who calls the shots. The citizens can’t question the state because programs do not make them wealthy to have what to protect; they are not participatory and feel their contribution to the function of state is small to question it. In otherwords, the donor is a more important political dynamic to the functioning of state than the citizens because it funds government. 80% of Ugandans have no sense of ownership to question the state except for tribal representation through offices like RDCs or cabinet. Political participation by citizens is simply a tool to help ethnic or religious groups access and control power and not to exercise authority on behalf of citizens but a small and powerful group only accountable to the donor community. Is this good for Institutional building? NO.

The face of civil society in Uganda today is the NGO Sector which is equally heavily donor dependent just like the state.But who initiates NGO formation? What is the membership and ownership? It still points to political actors who are manning the state(Read the Global Fund). You actually have a very homogenous conglomeration of power actors from state/NGO sector converging in interest thus institutional decay or stagnation. The NGO sector also lacks a localized agenda. It is controlled to some extent by the state through legislation limiting its scope as well as donors who dictate what policy platform to articulate. It is viewed as a partner in theory but as a competitor in practice for the same donor account. Most NGOs are set up to improve the political profile of politicians. This can be exemplified by the Global fund scandal in Uganda and the NGOs that were involved. The global fund helps explain the impact of donors on institutional growth in the developing world. Donors cannot love us more than we love ourselves and common sense dictates that they run their agenda here.

In summary, Uganda like many other developing countries need to launch a national agenda. There is need to own our destiny and our friends in the donor community must be made to understand we have that will. This calls for an intellectual revolution and decolonization, establishing national think tanks to examine where things went wrong. Unfortunately, at the moment, everything seems to be left to fate. We have a duty in our time to re-define our role as the elite.

Economic Espionage-Egypt Undermines Regional Dev't!

President Mubarrack & Former US Sec.Of State Andrew Cohen. Economic Espionage can be defined as calandestine methods used to undermine the economic and defense interests of a country.The damage from economic espionage can take the form of lost contracts, breach of contract, jobs and markets, and overall, withdrawal of committment by credit institutions and a diminished national competitive advantage. Uganda's current energy crisis is partly a consequence of economic sabotage. Tanzania's water and energy crisis also strongly point to potential calandestine acts of economic sabotage.Economic espionage obtains due to a clash in inter-state strategic economic as well as defense interests. This often is the work of intelligence services of state as well as formation of international alliances that undermine strategic enemy state action. In this thesis, I will explain the impact of Egypt's Strong Diplomatic footwork,her interest in the Nile and the Development process in Countries covered by the Nile.

A battle for control over the Nile has been raging out between Egypt, which regards the world's longest river as its lifeblood, and the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, which complain that they are denied a fair share of its water.In the latest escalation in the dispute, which some observers believe could lead to a new conflict in east Africa, Tanzania has announced plans to build a 105-mile pipeline drawing water from Lake Victoria, which feeds the Nile. The project "flouts" a treaty giving Egypt a right of veto over any work which might threaten the flow of the river.


The Nile Water Agreement of 1929, granting Egypt the lion's share of the Nile waters, has been criticised by east African countries as a colonial relic. Under the treaty, Egypt is guaranteed access to 55.5bn cubic metres of water, out of a total of 84bn cubic metres. The Egyptian water minister, Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, recently described Kenya's intention to withdraw from the agreement as an "act of war". Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former secretary-general of the UN, has predicted that the next war in the region will be over water.
The Nile Waters Agreement (NWA) over the allocation of its waters between Egypt and Great Britain (which represented Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika [now Tanzania] and the Sudan) was concluded on November 7, 1929 in Cairo by an exchange of letters between the Egyptian Prime Minister and the British High Commissioner in Egypt. The agreement allocated 48 billion cubic meters per year to Egypt as its acquired right and 4 billion cubic meters per year to the Sudan. These allocations were later increased to 55.5 billion cu. meters and 18 billion cu., respectively, under a 1959 bilateral agreement between these two countries that allowed for the construction of the Aswan Dam. Apart from Ethiopia, which had a government in place, the NWA was made before the other Nile Basin countries gained their independence. The agreement stated that no works would be undertaken on the Nile, its tributaries, and the Lake Basin that would reduce the volume of the water reaching Egypt. It also gave Egypt the right to "inspect and investigate" the whole length of the Nile to the remote sources of its tributaries in the Basin. This right "to inspect and investigate," which was tantamount to a veto power over any water or power project, has in recent years become moot, as all the former colonies on the Nile Basin have become independent nations and are not likely to readily agree to such encroachment on their sovereignty by Egypt. Indeed, some of them have begun to nibble on the NWA by initiating water projects that threaten to reduce the volume of water available to Egypt. Egypt considers any change in the agreement as a strategic threat and has repeatedly threatened to use all means at its disposal to prevent the violations of the agreement.The other Nile Basin African countries consider the agreement as a relic of a colonial era which no longer reflects their needs and aspirations and hence it should be annulled. Countering this argument, Sherif Al-Mousa, head of the Middle East Program at the American University in Cairo, argues that the Nile water agreement should be treated the same way as the boundaries of most Nile Basin countries which were established by colonial powers, and are recognized under international law.This has been gravely resented by east African countries since they won their independence. Kenya and Tanzania suffer recurrent droughts caused by inadequate rainfall, deforestation and soil erosion. The proposed Lake Victoria pipeline is expected to benefit more than 400,000 people in towns and villages in the arid north-west of Tanzania.
Tanzania Challenges Egypt
In early February 2004, Tanzania launched a project to draw water from Lake Victoria to supply the Shinyanga region. The project calls for the construction of about a 100 mile long inland pipeline at an initial cost of $27.6 million, to be constructed by a Chinese engineering company. To mitigate the anticipated Egyptian reaction, Tanzania announced that the pipleline was designed to provide drinking water to its thirsty population rather than irrigate agricultural land.
Tanzania's population of 35 million has suffered from frequent droughts, desertification, and soil erosion. In fact, Tanzania was the first riparian country which, upon its independence in 1961, declared the 1929 agreement invalid.

"These are people with no water," said the Tanzanian water minister, Edward Lowasa. "How can we do nothing when we have this lake just sitting there?"
Suzanne Mubarak & Laura Bush.

Another Challenge from Kenya
Similarly, in response to a threat from Kenya that it was considering withdrawing from the 1929 agreement, the Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mahmoud Abu Zeid said: "Egypt considers the withdrawal of Kenya from this agreement as tantamount to official declaration of war and a threat to its vital interests and national security." A Kenyan weekly quoted the Egyptian minister declaring in Addis Ababa that Kenya could be subject to sanctions by Egypt and the other eight members of the Nile River Basin Agreement. He said Kenya's position violates international law and customs "and we will not agree to it."
The Kenyan deputy foreign minister M. Watangola repeated his country's demand for a revision of this historic agreement because Kenya was not consulted prior to its being signed. He said eight Kenyan rivers flow into Lake Victoria, which is the main source of the Nile waters.

Ethiopia Asserts Rights to the Blue Nile
The Ethiopian Minister of Water Resources announced his country's intentions to develop close to 200,000 hectares (ha.) of land though irrigation projects and construction of two dams in the Blue Nile Sub-basin. He further stated that these projects would be the first phase of forty-six projects which Ethiopia proposed to execute along with ten joint projects which Egypt and Sudan proposed. The Ethiopian Minister of Water Resources retorted that the agreement to participate in the Nile Basin Initiative reserves Ethiopia's right to implement any project in the Blue Nile Sub-basin unilaterally, at any given time. He charged that the 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan impedes sustainable development in the basin and called for its nullification.

A Ugandan commentator Charles Onyango-Obbo wrote sometime back: "Egypt can't enjoy the benefits of having access to the sea, while blocking a landlocked country like Uganda from profiting from the fact that it sits at the source of the Nile." Uganda seems the least engaged in this battle for lack of diplomatic muscle, a visible lack of capacity for the state to initiate large projects and therefore has not given any direct threat to Cairo. Uganda's other disadvantage is also the role of IMF/World Bank whose influence in the running of the economy is enormous through budget support. Egyptian Intelligence also has classified the Ugandan state as unable to pose an immediate strategic threat and therefore contained.This means Egypt does not need to use threats of military action when it can diplomatically sabotage the development of strategic interests of Uganda through her sole source of direct financing. It is different with Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania countries that have moved fast to bring on the Chinese growing global influence in strategic investments. Uganda is still waiting in the wings because of her two decade alignment with the West. The state in Uganda has not made a bold step to bring on board the Chinese government growing economic muscle in her foreign policy because her multi-lateral and bilteral donors are mainly from Western Europe. Problem is Egypt is strongly allied to the US & Britain on mutual long term interests.The governments above are in a way directly involved in the economy through public interventions meaning they can finance big projects thus Egypt's tough response. Uganda is another case. Only the government can ponder about its state resignation at this glaring economic espoinage by Egypt and the donor community and re-align its foreign policy to address development contraditions.Through economic espionage, Egypt potentially is stiffling social-economic development because of her diplomatic foot work in Washington and London. It means, leaving strategic investments to private investors can be sabotaged through financial incetives by state as well as withdrawal of financing committments by International Credit Institutions with a more aggressive establishment in Cairo. Uganda technically is a victim of this to the greatest disadvantage as state planners wait for IMF/World Bank Instructions.In otherwords, we have to raise the bar of diplomatic engagement as well start looking at our mandate critically as a state like Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania have done.

While east African countries are eager to make greater use of the river, Egypt fears any threat to its lifeblood. Most of Egypt's population lives in the Nile valley - on 4% of the country's land - and any fall in the water level could be disastrous. From the Egyptian perspective, any change in the volume of its water could have devastating effects on Egypt. The vast majority of Egyptians live in a valley which is about 4 percent of the Egyptian territory, and 95 percent of Egypt's water resources are derived from the Nile.

Nevertheless, Egypt expressed its irritation with any project, arguing that under the 1929 agreement it has the right to veto any project - agricultural, industrial, or power - that could threaten its vital interests in guaranteeing its annual share of the river waters. While Egypt is handling the issue diplomatically, Egyptian officials stressed that "the diplomatic dialogue does not mean that Cairo does not consider any number of other options, if necessary." In diplomatic parlance, "other options" do not exclude the use of force. Tanzania has not budged. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Tanzanian Ministry of Water and Livestock Development, Dr. C. Nyamurunda, said that Tanzania's sentiments about the legality of the water agreement are well known. He emphasized that "other countries also believe that the treaties [NWA] were illegal but they are to cooperate in negotiations, although they are not restricted from using the waters of the Nile."


An estimated 160 million people in 10 countries depend on the river and its tributaries for their livelihoods. Within the next 25 years, the population in the Nile basin is expected to double, and there is a growing demand to harness the river for agricultural and industrial development.
ADiplomacy
The Nile treaty was drawn up at a time when Egypt was a British satellite, regarded as strategically crucial by London because of the Suez canal, which controlled access to India. The agreement is now in effect enforced by international donors, who are reluctant to advance funds for major river projects that will upset Egypt, a key Arab ally of the US in the Middle East.Sub-Saharan countries cannot match Egypt's diplomatic clout, but they face a dilemma as a major untapped resource rolls through their territories.

"We have reached a stage where all the Nile basin countries are confronted by domestic development challenges," said Halifa Drammeh, a deputy director of the United Nations environment programme. "How many people have access to safe water? How many have access to sanitation? There is a tremendous pressure on these governments to sustain the needs of their populations, and to raise their standard of living.

"After all, there is nothing we can do in life without water. Wherever there is sharing, there is potential for conflict."

The Nile is shared by ten countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda –- with a combined population of about 300 million, about 160 million of whom live within the boundaries of the Nile Basin. The ten countries that share the Nile waters include some of the world's poorest, with annual per capital income of less than $250.

The Pressures for Change

Population pressures, frequent draughts, and increasing soil salinity have intensified the demands by the Nile Basin countries to renegotiate the 1929 agreement. Not deterred by Egyptian reluctance to negotiate the 1929 agreement, or even Egyptian threats, and constrained by financial hardships, some Nile Basin countries are determined to implement projects that would tap into the sources of the Nile.
The Nile Basin Initiative notwithstanding, member countries are forging ahead with their own projects and challenges. Droughts are difficult to forecast, even in the beginning of the crop season. Building dams to store water is not unlike a bank savings account, to be used at a time of need. While Egypt has secured its agriculture with the building of the Aswan Dam, it has been reluctant, if not belligerent, when other countries on the Nile Basin sought similar solutions.

Water for Oil
A senior Kenyan parliamentarian suggested that the Nile water should be sold to Egypt and Sudan for oil. He said that the time has come to replace the Nile agreement with a new agreement to allow the members to benefit from the Nile's waters. He added: "We have presented our natural resources to Egypt and Sudan free without them doing anything in return. We need to sell to them as they sell to us." The Egyptian treated the idea as "stupid" because the two countries have vested rights, rather than customers who would buy the water.

Egypt Accuses Hidden Fingers
In addition to Tanzania and Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda are also demanding the abrogation of the 1929 agreement and a bigger share of the Nile waters. Egypt accuses "hidden fingers known to the Egyptian side [which] are openly inciting the traditional allies of Egypt in the Nile Basin to annul the agreement, arguing that it is incompatible with the population and political developments that have transpired in the last 75 years." The anonymous senior Egyptian official who has made the allegation about the "hidden fingers" stressed that any change in the agreement was inconceivable and warned that "any infringement of the agreement would suggest that the African countries do not respect regional obligations."

Egypt's Alternatives
To deal with the threat to its vital oil supply Egypt has four alternatives. Some are not mutually exclusive:

· Reduce waste through improved irrigation system.

· Price water at market rates.

· Maintain the status quo as long as feasible.

· Resort to the use of force.
Reduce Waste Through Improved Irrigation System
According to a study by the World Bank, 96.44 per cent of the economically active population in Egypt is engaged in agriculture. It is the highest percentage in the Middle East, with Morocco in second place with 92.61 percent of active population in agriculture. By contrast, the corresponding ratios for Tunisia and Lebanon are 60.87 and 10.35 percent, respectively. As a result, much of the water is used in agriculture, which contributes proportionately a small percentage to GDP. In Egypt, 88% of the water is consumed in agriculture which, as a sector, contributes only 14 percent to GDP, while 8 percent of water used in industry contributes 34 per cent of GDP. The report suggests that "from a narrow macroeconomic perspective, rationale of justifying the allocation of water to agriculture over industrial and other sectors is weak."


Price Water at Market Rates
While the region remains one of the most water-scarce regions in the world, the cost of water for irrigation is set at below cost recovery levels. Egyptian agriculture is entirely dependent on irrigated land. The government provides irrigation water free, except of cost recovery of on-farm investment projects. Annual irrigation subsidies are estimated at $5 billion. In Egypt, irrigation subsidies are often rationalized as a means of offsetting low farm prices controlled to keep down urban food prices.Water pricing and subsidies are such that they lead to waste in agriculture and provide little incentive for conservation techniques.

Maintain the Status Quo
Egypt's third option is to seek a status quo while tolerating some changes on the margin. To do so, Egypt must continue to maintain a pro-American and pro-Western orientation to discourage them and organizations controlled by them, such as the World Bank, from financing costly water projects such as dams or power projects in any of the riparian countries, which they themselves cannot finance through internally-generated resources.

Resort to the Use of Force
The last and least likely alternative is to resort to the use of force to uphold Egypt's right to exercise the veto power on activities that it deems dangerous to its national interests. Egypt's saber rattling cannot be taken too seriously, certainly not by the African countries themselves. Indeed, as one Egypt daily pointed out, "the harsh language adopted by Abou Zeid … might not be working…" Not only does Egypt lack the military capacity to strike at countries two thousand miles outside its borders, but it will be hard pressed to justify a military action to enforce the provision of a 75-year old agreement concluded to satisfy colonialist considerations and priorities but dissatisfy the needs of the countries upstream. A Kenyan father of two, who owns eight ponds for fish farming, was quoted as saying: "If the Egyptians try to invade Kenya for the sake of its water we are ready to die for our rights. Kenya must forget the Nile agreement and return to the commercial consumption of the Lake Victoria Lake."

Uganda's tourism potential can change the face of the economy!

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Who does not like going out there on the wild waters of Lake Victoria and get involved in that excting fishing despite the threat of crocs? Freaks, yes. Brig.Kasirye Ggwanga's smile on his fishing expeditions in Kalangala Islands just tells it all . This is the face of Uganda's tourism potential to the outside world. It is our potential outlook to the world. This is what they want. But we have to put in place incentives to make it attrative to them. The capital city can get a face lift by having its roads fixed indeed because its the first point of contact for our visitors as they radiate out to remote places. The power black outs really are not good and this honesly like many others require a strategic response. Unnecesarry political clashes among our usual beligerents are not welcome. I am talking about violent skirmishes between the police, black-mambas, supporters and non-supporters. We can do this in conference rooms, wearing our best suits and talking like civilized people indeed we are. We must work very hard to reduce this seemingly violent out look in resolving our petty domestic differences. We can copy Botswana's model here. It works!!! Tourists Enjoying it in Banda Island.

We need to re-package our domestic situation better. We need the right attitude. The hotel industry must be up to the task to accommodate our visitors in a professional and hospitable manner. And Ugandans themselves must love what they posses. The chinese are their own biggest market in their own tourism industry. We may not afford this in the short term but it makes sense to see us enjoy what we have, that indeed we are friends of our environment. Reason we are not at the moment is because our attention is misdirected and there is not an organized way to focus on our most valuable strategic advantage to the world.

Gorrillas in Mugahinga NP.Uganda.

Uganda is endowed with the most awesome ecological potential for her growth. Her beautiful sceneries of
mountain ranges, her dense moist tropical forests, a diverse fauna and flora which can be exploited not only for a potentially lucrative tourism industry but also for tropical research in medicine and other fields.

The hospitality industry world over is shaped by an intergrated policy that over sees the establishment of a robust infrastructure in transport, Information and Communications Technology, good and affordable accommodation. Security of tourists is a very crucial and hopitality must be an intergrated culture. Uganda has a number of national parks with such Bwindi Impenetrable forests home to 60% of the world's remaining Gorrillas. The country has both national parks and game reserves in all regions of the country. But strategic investment in this industry requires a focussed and concerted approach and a re-orientation of those manning the state.

Leadership is a vital aspect of our entire development process because in requires national planning and squarely on the shoulders of those who seek public office. They will need to be humble and work for country and plan for the long term future of the country. It is these efforts that will help re-shape the face of Uganda and Africa for the long term as true partner.

Whose wars have we been fighting in Africa?

A childs working in a Diamond Mine in Siera Leone.

Africa has been a theatre of war since the colonial struggles and worse off in the post colonial era . The spectacle of armed violence has been witnessed by the unarmed women and children who sometimes have been used as weapons of war. In some of the conflicts witnessed in recent history like in Liberia, Siera Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Northern Uganda, Sudan, DR.Congo, women have been raped as a weapon of war. Child soldiers have been part of the military machines built for Africa to fight Africa and destroy Africa. Darfur in Sudan today is a society going through what many observers call the other "quiet" genocide of our time. The African Union mobilized troops to stop the conflict but found a more complicated situation of more determined beligerents of which the state is part. We have watched on as we fight each other despite our enormous duty to establish and preserve peace for the prosperity of our people.

A soldier on guard on Kisangani, DR.Congo.

The government in Khartoum mandated to protect the great people of Sudan is more concerned about self-preservation than the people its supposed to protect. It is part of this inhillation policy of the black people in Darfur using its well armed wing of Arabs called Janjaweeds that saw Southern Sudan on a fireball for two decades of destruction. Like in Siera Leone when Fodeh Sankoh dehumanized the entire country, like in Liberia when Sgt.Doe, Charles Taylor and Prince Yormie Johnson and their armies ravaged communities with their quest for power, it all turns out that these are men and women with a western education. Men and women expected to know our strategic threats and realities as continent. The fundamental question is why we fail to work in unity as a people.

To a keen observer, Africa is seemingly in a constant state of war. Communities are perpetually in a state of alert and fear and this causes unproductivity of communities. States are weak and constantly under threat of collapse. In 1993, Somalia got the last American attention, when U.S. Delta Force commandos and Army Rangers were dropped into its capital city, Mogadishu, to capture two aides of a Somali warlord. The mission was successful, but two Black Hawk helicopters were downed by Somali militia linked to Osama Bin Laden network which the Islamic Courts today are an extension, and in the ensuing firefight, 18 Americans died. Images of an Army Ranger's body being dragged through the streets horrified U.S. households. Soon after, President Clinton abandoned the country, and Somalia was largely forgotten until the 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down" retold the tragic story.Now, Somalia is on the brink of becoming the fourth front in the U.S. war on terror. As in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Lebanon, the U.S. is allied in some way against radical Islamic fundamentalists. The Islamic Courts Union, a growing alliance of Islamic militants, recently routed U.S.-backed warlords and took over Mogadishu. It seeks to oust a transitional federal government, which is supported by the African Union but controls only the town of Baidoa. On the sidelines is the U.S.-backed regime in Ethiopia that is eager to lead the battle against the Islamists, who may have ties to Al Qaeda. A war could quickly spread throughout the Horn of Africa and be as costly in human lives as the Israeli Hezbollah conflict. The collateral damage from all these conflicts does not seem to matter to many of those manning our governments.

Fig.3 A child trapped by war.

In many ways, Somalia, the latest front in the war on terror is the culmination of nearly 30 years of alternating Washington policy blunders and neglect in the Horn of Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. That history has left the U.S. with few good options in a worsening situation.U.S. missteps in the region date to 1977, when policymakers tacitly — and foolishly — encouraged Somalia to take advantage of political instability in the Ethiopian capital and grab control of Ethiopia's Somali-inhabited Ogaden region. The move backfired when Soviet and Cuban troops rushed in to defend the Marxist regime in Addis Ababa, turning Ethiopia into Moscow's staunchest ally in Africa. In response, Washington armed Mohamed Siad Barre's thugocracy in Somalia. When the Cold War ended, U.S. policy toward Somalia swung from intense engagement to indifference. Aid was cut off, Barre was overthrown and the country began its descent into anarchy.But in 1992, the New York Times published photographs of starving children in Baidoa, and President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. troops into Mogadishu under U.N. auspices to distribute food. It was a noble humanitarian gesture but ultimately misguided. Most experts opposed American intervention in Somalia because they believed that the famine was nearing an end and that the presence of U.S. soldiers would only exacerbate the conflicts among rival clan warlords that stymied relief efforts. Were they right?

But how can real men always wait for external solutions to basic problems that call for just common decency? We can always talk about our differences and with respect and acknowledge we must always have resepctable differences as well as common interests. When do our leaders act in unisom? In battle just to prove machoism and the strength of their neo-colonial backers!

Fig.2 UPDF Hunting for LRA Rebels .

But have we asked ourselves who our enemy is? Have we asked ourselves who our powerful weapons imported from Eastern Europe on borrowed money are decimating? Have we asked ourselves whose communities our machoism is raking? We have borrowed money over the years to build military machines to kill our own people. In some instances State armies have turned against their people to protect corporate interests exploiting our natural resources further degrading our people. The African elite that formed the bulk of our post colonial leadership has over-rated its importance thus the constant attempt the western life style. It has lacked the courage to be humble in the course of duty thus the massive levels of corruption, institutional decay and state collapse. Like our pre-colonial chiefs they have been so gullible to form psuedo-alliances to perpetuate wanton suffering of their people. We rebuke all those leaders who have failed to know they are just temporary dynamics like all of us. They don't know their role fundamentally is to build a better future for men and women who will come after us. That we build a foundation of a strong partnership of our children and the world.

Cross Cultural Exchange through Education!

A Cisco Engineer Explains Routing/Switching

Algorithsms .

17 ICT Engineers from the Developing World were hosted by the United States Telecommunication Training Institute, Washington DC and later descended on San Jose,CA at the Cisco Headquarters for an IP Security and Traffic Engineering Training which was turned out to be the most enriching experience for many.

This Tech Cross-Cultural Interaction re-enforced a few aspects about humanity and the modern challenges facing most of the developing world. Many of the Engineers under going training were always earge to share information about experiences back home. Their discusisons were multi-directional rainging from policy regulatory issues in their home countries, limited ICT infrastructure, lack of skilled human resource, political instability etc.

ICT Engineers tour Stanford University

Education remains the key structural requirement that will help intergrate Africa in the world economy through improved communication, acquisition of technical skills that are relevant to national, regional and global market demands. One of the principle benefit of globalization has been the cross cultural influences that have opened Africa to models that have worked and that can be replicated without necessarily subjecting our valued heritage to damaging distortions.

The conservatives have argued that indeed western culture is not good for us albeit with alot of vagueness. Culture evolves due to human interactions, through information exchange, through education, the mass media and now the super-highway. It is imperative to note the influences of global intergration in almost all aspects of life. The industrial revolution did not impact Africa fundamentally since we remained agrarian as a society. The land distribution system has been grossly fragmented and used for subsistence agriculture. Mechanization which brings economies of scale has not been part of us. The consequence has been poverty. Poverty breeds insecurity, disease and conflict. This continent is not poor in natural resources and comparatively we have more resources, a better climate, a more undistabilized ecological system than other land masses. In otherwords, we have comparative advantages that we must take advantage of.

Shaka at the Cisco Headquarters San Jose,CA.

Our most important resource though is not the oil or diamonds that we are now striking in many part of Africa since these are exhaustible. It is our human capital. But this human capital must be of high quality and this comes with an education of worth. And education and a cultural orientation that has a broad outlook of the past, the present and the future. We have what the world needs and they have what we need. Meaning we are supposed to be partners in a mutually symbiotic relationship. But we have to identify what we can offer to the world. So far we do not seem to know what we can offer to the world. The political leadership is still in the mud with feet of clay thus the glaring intellectual paralysis. We have the fauna and flora. We have fresh water sources, we have tropital forests, we have organic foods in diversity, we have the most awesome culture and languages. But we need to have capacity to identify our comparative strengths. We need to exploit our heritage to our advantage in full knowledge of the global forces that impact us positively and negatively.

A Nigerian Engineer Tests Vidoe Conferencing.

We need to invest in education infrastructure that embrases a global culture to address the demands of a global market. We need to look at the future of our continent and the African society in relation to the world. The leadership needs to lead by humility and sacrifice for country. We need leaders who can sit and talk, strategically plan for the long term. We need leaders who can admire with inspiration. Many of our leaders have travelled but seem to have let their heads back home and did not benefit from the visible functional urban transport, financial and other public systems. Cross cultural education does help young people learn, admire and get inspiration from functional systems. It helps people learn how to replicate technology to our local needs. It broadens our scope of experiences and sharing and this what I found out at the United States Telecommunications Training Institute, Washington DC. http://ustti.org/ .

My interaction with Albanians, Bulgarians, Russians, Kenyans, Phillipinos, Papua Guineans, Americans extendend my horizon that societies world over have peculiar problems and sometimes these intersect. That tested models that have solved challenges in other places can be replicated sometimes with minimal modifications rather than going to first principles. This was a Technology grounding training which brough Engineers from 17 countries in the developing world. I was inspired by the strong sense of insitutional response to public issues by Information age governments. I was inspired by the sense of nationalism among the people in expressing their love for country. I was amazed by the respect for the law and sheer functionality of systems. The culture of documentation of protocols was revolutionarizing. I made up my mind to try to be an ambassador for the good. Yes we can fix our society for the future of our children.

Shaka Robert.

Strikes &Demonstrations Exhibit Policy Contradictions!

Makerere Universitiy has been closed due to a sit down strike by lecturers over pay. Kyambogo University until recently saw its lecturer go on strike and in all these seemingly "unruly and unpatriotic" demonstrations of resentment by our academics, students are the most affected and therefore justified to support those who impart knowledge in the future leaders. Gulu University has threated to follow suit just like the Medical Doctors in all National Referal Hospitals.

The motivation of the growing resentment is just one:Public Irresponsiveness. The Ministry of Finance, Dr.Ezra Suruma recently confirmed that his ministry has budgeted for the comfort of our members of Parliament who have already hinted on their expectations to the tune of shillings 20bn to share among themselves. Each member of parliament expects a minimum of shs.60million for the purchase of a powerful 4WD car to ease transport on our very bad roads. The minister is a potential beneficiary as an Ex-Official of this parliament like many pot-bellied politicians and other Presidential appointees. This is tax payers money in a very banana country with banana people. The fact that the state is strongly fused and almost homogenous in function means there is unity by the political elite to exclusively sit on the national dining table. The Public Service of Uganda today is diverting alot of develoment resources to nurse the egos of its redundat human resource because the services we expect from the state/government as a mandate are not forth-coming. It means the government cannot deliver services to the people but has money for politicians to share among themselves. Ugandans hate this buffoonery and are watching. Imagine what shs.20bn can do amidst this energy crisis.

MUK Students carry an injured Colleague.

I read in the media recently that an Indian firm TATA was planning to set up a $20m plant to manufacture instant coffee from our organic coffee. This is just twice the money MPs want to share among themselves just for their comfort. How about using the same money and investing a fruit processing plant? How many university graduates would get jobs? Farmers in Busoga or Teso would find market for their agricultural produce?

So far,the strikes are exhibit of a clash between those in the civil service and the public service of Uganda. Uganda today has a huge Public Administration structure which is so expensive to support economically. Politically, this structure can deliver in electoral terms but has serious limits and is predatory.

So strikes and demonstrations from the civil service might be a tip of the ice-bag. The civil service is saying look you say you have money for the luxury of MPs, you must have money for us to afford the increasing cost of living due to inflation. Meantime, the business community which has been hit badly by the enery crisis amidst a sky rocketing taxations regime is still watching,definately with a plan. The energy sector coupled with wrong political decisions are pointing us in a very gloomy direction.

Where the President has reached, he has very few options on his hands. He can't dismantle his political structure to redirect resources to strategic sectors that will calm the public nerve by lowering the cost of doing business because this is political sucuide. It is the most strategic option but requires a total reconfiguration of the political spectrum and therefore a radical shift. This means carrying out surgery on on the constitution of Uganda that grants the legal instruments that legalize the political octopus feeding on the resources meant for service delivery.Almost unaffordable!!!! The possibility of this is founded in the political will and pragmatism of the President and his policy adivsors. If the intentions of the NRM political regime is purely political rather than strategic re-aligment back to the foundation of the revoution it will be very hard for it to come back should the peasants run out of any hope. The political cadreship built on financial incentives does not appreciate the ideological bondage between the peasants and the authors of the rebellion. It is this growing sloppiness that characterizes the bulkiness of the political infrastrcuture. The cost of maintining all political members financially is eating up resources away from sectors that would galvanize and consolidate the support from NRM's most strategic allies.

The other option is to crack hard on demonstrators with the police and military which will technically fault the CHOGM and the country's cartoon democratic credentials in the international community. Good Public Relations does not support this direction except in extreme conditions which still point to a strain in the economy which statistics show but politics deny.We might be headed in the evening days similar to the Mzee Arap Moi's days in Kenya as forces try to take advantage of public slopiness. Everyone wants their share if the government behaves like it has "alot" of money to waste but these simple harmonic motions of having and not having will generate further public resentment. President Museveni, has lots of work to do in these 5 years my dear friends.

Perspective-The New Approach to Public Governance!

Uganda is facing an energy crisis that has resulted into massive economic depression. Tanzania like Uganda is facing reduced power supply as result of drought. Kenya which has depended more on thermal power for sometime now and previously imported power from Uganda's Owen Falls Dam, is soon to be an exporter of power to Uganda in the short term.Among the three East African,states Kenya is the only state which seems to have survived this energy Tsunami.Overall-Sub-Saharan Africa is facing an energy deficit which threatens its relatively improving investment climate. Overall, good governance that has been a key issue of contention for improved investment opportunities is being addressed in many countries. The prospects of over conflicts are waning except in the horn of Africa. The government of Uganda is currently talking peace in Juba with the Lord Resistance Army with the mediation of Dr.Riek Machar the Vice President of South Sudan (GoSS). Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo point to a more civilized engagement by political opponents in the post election period.In Burundi, former beligerents are now looking at another approach of constructive engagement to rebuild the country from years of war.
Development Partners?

This means governments are now at a time when they are supposed to execute their mandates in Public Policy. Good governance means institutional accountability and efforts have been made in this direction. For long we have wasted alot of resources fighting proxy wars on behalf of our colonial God fathers. Alot of resources have been invested in building war-machines rather infrastructures that help build a broad foundation for the private-sector to effectively absorb the hugely redandunt human resource. Kenya's economy has withered from external pressure due to state protectionism through resistance from ferocious assaults from the two sister Bretton Wood Institutions. Strategic Public Interventions have been part of the state agenda in Kenya which helped stave off unwarranted interference in the Kenyan Economy.That despite years of aid cuts due to political disagreements with donors, the Kenyans economy continued to grow through mobilization of local resources.

Uganda's case has been different. Totally donor dependent it would be hard to imagine how the country could run without donor support. Public interventions have not been part of the blue print. It is the IMF/World Bank that has run the show unleashing market forces in an economy that needs serious rehabilation. The knee-jack response to the energy crisis through termal generation points to a government that has been in slumber for so long. Since the commissioning of the Owne Falls Dam in 1954 by the Colonial Government there has not been any structural response to the growing energy demand. The Nalubale Extension was built premised on wrong Engineering design albeit certified by government engineers. Intelligence has it that the Egyptians with their strong diplomatic foot work in Washington have consitently sabotaged any effort to construct any Dam along the Nile. That private investors can't stand in the way of a state looking at the Nile as its stategic security interest should not be magic to the Uganda government. To many observers, it is very puzzling that the Ugandan government is aloof at the potential of sabotage by the Egyptian Intelligence with a resident hydrologist at the rank of an Ambassador in Jinja.

Hon.Amon Muzoora Chairman Natural Resource Committee in the 7th Parliament moved a bill against the 1929 Agreement that ceded alot of power to Egypt over the Nile. The Egyptian Embassy in Kampala organized a working trip for Amon Muzoora to Cairo only to come back home a week later mute about his fact finding mission. Like Parliamentarians who go to Belarus in winter to investigate junk military choppers, public policy mamagement in the information age require institutional frame-works that are functional. The inter agency duplication that is visible is purely political rather than strategically aimed at efficiently delivering services to the masses.
Symbol of Predation or Legislation?

Uganda, like many states in Africa are still stuck in the industrial revolution state structures in the Information age. They are huge and suck resources away from from development programs to pay wages of political hang-ons. It will require alot of effort to dismantle the dinasour of government that Uganda has today. It is a huge government that cannot address glaring public concerns due to burden the public administration impacts on the state. Amidst political predation, there descent even in the civil service that the public service that forms the political class is predating on the treasury. Now dons are on strike, doctors are threatening to go on strike anytime, Makerere University has been shut down, parliament is demanding shs.20bn for purchase of comfortable cars for honourables, teachers are poorly renumerated just like the police force. Meanwhile, all roads in the capital city are in a state of decay with man-holes bringing down fuel tankers cutting off traffic. It all points to that amorphous government that is so heavy to respond contructively and timely. Government structures like that are for regime preservation through building political bases centered on ethnicity, religion rather than service delivery and infrastructural development. It is this tactical mistake that any regime would want to restructure. It by summoning political will that the government and the state would work to Re-engineer business process with respect to the citizens they serve and the business community. It's by these structural observations that government policy advisors would help the political leadership look at the desired reforms. At the moment indeed there are many national challenges and all Ugandans seem to appreciate those strategic challenges. When government behaves in a manner that is so extravagant as to plan for the comfort of MPs with a whopping budgent of shs.20bn, no one will stand by it. Uganda as a family needs to have cohesion in the direction it must take. Demonstrations are an expression of political disagreements by people who do not have another voice. Ugandans are saying to government that you have to be frugal in the way you manage our public policy concerns. They are calling on government to understand that it is there because of them and not the reverse.

The fundamental solution therefore is to streamline government through structural reforms so that a small but efficient people-centered government is established for the sole purpose of serving the people. This is called an Information Age government and state.

Shaka Robert.

The African Voltage

You want to know the African Voltage?You want to know what makes us happy people? Welcome to the Volts. The African voltage symbolizes that innate traditional way and energy of expressing what we know we own and have inherited over generations from our ancestors. This cultural heritage expresses our resolve to adhere to our traditional roots in dealing even with modern challenges. Yes, there is an evolution as the world globalizes and yes we recognize these changes but there is that natural voltage visible on the faces of our people and their resilience to challenges. The disagreements on whether states evolve or are engineered by revolutionary blends with the former are for pretentious sociologists to sort out. We have moved on with what belongs to us. In Africa it's about life in its natural state.I have gone around the world but the trip ends up back in Africa and Uganda to be specific. Despite all the hiccups of our political-economy engineered externally, despite all the pressures from imperialist interests that have diverted states from addressing their natural mandates,we have proved to be the most resilient people on this planet. Aboriginals, Red Indians have been reduced by what in modern history is termed as "the civilized" world. Ours has been a painful rediscovery from slave trade and colonial interference. There is alot that has been talked about in a stereotypical way about this continent.

But our adversaries stand on notice that we are not Aboriginals or Red Indians. We are Africans and the world has evolved as well as revolutionarized with us playing a constructive role. From a strategic stand point, we can extrapolate the intentions of the New Global Order in relation to us as a continental block.

We are just a proud people.Proud of our rich heritage,our culture,our women,our organic foods, we have tried though not enough to resolve our inadequacies. Our collective strength is through our capacity to acknowledge those flows in our African setting and working to resolve those contradictions. Yes, we are trying and full of energy and our resolve to redeem ourselves, support ourselves and work to change our sorrounding for the better our responsibility.

This continenet has a beautiful climate, the tropical forests, the magnificient sceneries,fauna and flora.We have never believed in individualism and this is not out of insecurity or may be it is,but we love our communalism. The young generations has chosen its place in the defence of Africa,we have come of age. We are now partners with good friends, we recognize ourselves as global citizens and yes we are. We have threats as ever before, but our mothers despite all the difficulties have and continue to self preserve our land left behind by our fore fathers. The young generations have gotten into the fold. Yes, we love this place, we owe everything to our great fathers who preserved it for us.

Our heritage has been the most precious piece of our ancestral past. We have walked the talk and gone ahead to preserve what belongs to us. We do look at humanity in the real spiritual sense God made us. We knew God before the coming of the Europeans and Arabs. Alot has been distorted about us as people who looked up to our grand great fathers as a source of healing. Like all civilizations we had our technology and civilization of the time. We built huts because that is what we had at the time.

We made temples and the Baganga, one of the most organized people called God Katonda;meanig the one who creates. The Abaluhya called God Omurisya;meaning the one who feeds. This was before Henry Morton Stanley came to Uganda or any other European rolled on to Africa to bring "civilization" or is it imperialism in quest for natural resource predation on behalf of their home governments. The teaching that Africans worship evil in their huts and only those in Iron roofed buildings called churches worshiped the top most God was aimed at decampaigning our technology of the time and therefore distortion of facts and undermining of our cultural-religious history. We are a forgiving people and yes we forgave our tormentors. What is called modern civilization through reliogious zealotry was an engine of establishing capitalistic interests in our midst. And ideology that emphasizes individualism to communalism.

We are the most hospitable people in the world. We are the most cultured people often with no hidden agenda.Africans embrace true humanism as a race by our cultural orientations. Manipulative collaboration has been an alien introduction and the first introductions of corruption among our people.All the struggles witnessed in Africa today are distortions aimed at preservation of our heritage. We are in a cultural struggle to self preserve our mother land and its beauty. The chinese have and yes we can. The world faces an ecological catastrophe if America's cultural imperialism is not checked by other cultures.

I am not saying I hate American, British or Chinese culture but I love African Culture more. We have done our part to trace our history. Yes we are working on documenting what we have discored. It's a process that requires committment but the young ones have come forward and showed enthusiasm. All this goes a long way to show that Africa is a partner undermined by those who do not understand how the world works. That our grand children will be true partners of the world as we; in our time work to establish our true identiy in the new global order. We re-echoe our call to the world and those who have relegated Africa to the peripheral that we are a re-awakened giant that is slowly emerging as a global player. The resources we have is all you want and previously it was Western Europe's exclusive monopoly of access, now we can deal with those whose hand stretch out to us with respect. Let no one underestimate our resolve to protect our natural resources. It has gone on for long but today a moment has come for us to prove to the world that it calls for more respect to deal with us. And you think I am joking? That is not a grave.It's an archeological excavation by an African student trying to put Africa into perspective.

It is evident our children have the resolve to. The entire continet is on a true African voltage that the world is now caught in awe. They have hope for a new future that belongs to them and those who will respect them as true global citizens.

We love them and now we are working than ever before to prepare them to take over the mantle of our destiny. We have the determination than ever before to live in diginity and to respect our women and children as true agents of change. We love our beautiful children because they are a symbol of our future civilization.