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.

The role of young Africans with in and the Diaspora in the Development Process!

Introduction:

Africa is at a junction point in its quest to address the five significant areas of: Breaking the cycle of poverty, Conflicts & their resolution, Leadership and Governance, Socio-Economic Development and HIV/AIDS.

The Principle challenge to Africans both with in and outside will always be the identification of Africa’s strategic position on the global priority list, develop an economic blue print that integrates Africa into the global economy through Trade and not entirely on AID and a continental consciousness that Africa is our motherland. Diasporians armed with their level of exposure, will need to understand the effect of the geo-political system driven by capitalism and appreciate that Africa will find no favors from the corporate world whose desire is for acquisition of natural resources, even by force if it comes to that, to oil their respective economies.

Globalization is an Irreversible key epicenter in any intellectual dissection of Africa’s potential and the role young African Diasporians must play in order to increase the momentum of Africa’s road to sustainable development.

Economic “globalization” is a historical process, the result of human innovation and technological progress. It refers to the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through Trade and financial flows. The term sometimes also refers to the movement of people (Labor) and knowledge (technology) across international borders. Globalization involves the opening of economies (and thereby societies) to global market, as a result of present and the prevalent capitalist system. It was founded on such principles as deregulation, liberalization and privatization. Despite its benefits, with no safety nets, it has resulted in not only the economic displacement of peoples but more importantly, the obliteration of entire cultures and societies.

Situational Analysis:

Africa’s economic crisis began in the 1970s.African governments took advantage of readily available International loans but, in many cases, lacked the expertise or institutions to ensure they were used for priority development projects. Unfortunately, substantial portions of these loans found their way into the pockets of the corrupt, privileged members of society and unwarranted massive military spending as a result of the Cold war. By the end of the 1980s, most sub-Saharan countries were forced to devote between 40-82% of their earnings to redeem their foreign debt. Africa’s debt burden compared to its economic size is twice as large as that of any other region. 33 African Countries are classified as heavily indebted.

Trade performance across the African continent varies greatly. Although Mauritius and Botswana have grown, most African Countries have been stagnant or have retarded since 1980. Among others factors, this is related to the colonial legacy and a concentration of exports in Agricultural commodities that have rapidly de-valued such as coffee. Economic globalization has also exposed African Countries to the rules of a global Trading system defined by wealthy nations. Devaluation of Agricultural commodities on the Global market results in reduction in general consumption, take children out of school, and reduce spending on healthcare. In Uganda, women, children and young people do suffer and the result is rural-urban migration in search for work.

Adjustment policies introduced by the IMF/World Bank strongly encouraged participating African Countries to adopt free trade policies. As a result, African economies are the most open in the world. Powerful corporate economies have taken advantage of this as they continue to protect theirs own markets. In 1990, the IMF classified 75% of African Countries as operating “restrictive” trade regimes, with none classified as “open” (referring to whether African markets to foreign products and investment). In 2002, the IMF refers to only 14% of African trade regimes as “restrictive”, with 43% now classified as “open”.

In 1999, the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that Africa receives $21 per person in aid per year. By contrast, Oceania received $196 and Europe received $38. From 1991-1999, the percentage of total aid going Africa dropped from 37% to 26%. Despite the continuous flow of aid, Africa’s wide spread problems show little sign of lessening. It has become clear that aid despite its good intentions, is not the silver bullet to Africa’s social problems, partly because of the way its been used. Neither the local people, nor young people, have been significantly involved in the design, Implementation or evaluation of development programs and projects.

In response to pressure from the IMF/World Bank, as well as the need to repay debts, major changes have occurred within the Agricultural industry. Small-scale farmers in Africa are now in competition with large commercial Estates. As a result, young farmers have moved off land as agriculture becomes less viable. These changes have led to a decline in crop varieties, and an increase in water use, food insecurity and commercial fertilizer.

Children, youths and women in Africa are growing up in an environment where the quality and quantity of food is insecure, resulting in mal-nutrition and loss of life. The causes of Southern African food crisis are complex and vary from Country to Country. In different proportions they reflect a mixture of poverty and vulnerability, bad weather, poor governance, bad advice from donors and economic collapse. High rates of HIV/AIDS and other disease have further sapped the people’s ability to cope breeding conflicts in Africa. Donor driven policies of liberalizing African food productions have been especially controversial, with evidence that they have made it more difficult for Africans to grow more food or to afford to buy it, while in Zimbabwe drought and land reform policies have contributed to a collapse of food production.

Economic colonialism in Africa has compounded the existing theft and exploitation of vast natural resources with inadequate environmental regulations, and the relative powerlessness of local communities when faced with foreign corporate interests.

Factors associated with HIV infection include a lack of adequate healthcare, low levels of education, poor living conditions, and limited access to basic services, rapid urbanization, unemployment and poverty. In a sense, poverty is exacerbating AIDS, and AIDS is exacerbating poverty. The number of people infected with HIV/AIDS has reached an estimated 36 million. Approximately 95% live in developing nations and 70% in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. The global HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was 1.07% in 2000; while for sub-saharan Africa, the average was 8.57%.

Effects of Globalization:

We all recognize that the effects of globalization have been uneven, especially for Africa relative to Asia & Europe. Indeed, some argue that globalization has worsened inequality in the world, eroding the incomes of the poor and increasing their vulnerability. Africans today feel more marginalized by globalization and excluded from international trade and financial flows. They argue that the gap between the richest and poorest countries has widened in the last four decades as the continent has fallen further and further behind the rest of the world. Western tariffs discriminate against the local processing of commodities such as Cocoa, coffee and cotton. African goods sold in the OECD countries face tariffs roughly ten times higher than those levied on goods traded with the OECD. Ineffective policy prescriptions from the IMF/World Bank bear little reality to local conditions and the needs on the ground. Africans argue that the continent was in fact, better off before the reforms. They complain about the poor response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other diseases and inadequate and effective financial support from the donor community.

Net private direct investment to Sub-Saharan Africa was only $3.9 billions in 2002, most of it directed to exploit the continent’s natural resources, despite the often-stated fact that return on FDI in Africa is higher than in any other region. As many watch the progress of other countries through vastly improved international communication links, Africans have become increasingly bitter and disappointed with their governments and with the world at large. Many respond by desperately seeking to leave the continent to find better lives in those Countries that have benefited most from globalization, creating a new socio-political challenges, not for Africa alone, but the world at large.

The above analysis gives a desperate but partly the real picture on the ground reflecting Africa as continent suffering from mass economic and psychological depression. The thrust for people to migrate to Europe, America and Japan is as a result of the poor economic conditions imposed on the continent by the global system. The economic stress on the continent as a result of the above has caused Africa being characterized as a conflict prone continent whose security, given the HIV/AIDS epidemic and poor economy, losing any guarantees. The effect of the causes of immigration of Africans to Europe still standing will always keep diasporians away from home, keep them fragmented even in Europe or America due to an artificially configured corporate system that cares much less in addressing the huge brain drain. In other words, the current global order has not prioritized in addressing Africa’s development challenges and not rightly if has attempted to through it’s IMF/World Bank AID machinery.

Governance in Africa:

This sadly, is what one hears most in the debates at home. These reactions, however, over look some significant positive effects of globalization that are shaping the future Africa. The first is good governance. One of the most durable effects of globalization has been the growing recognition across Africa that good governance at all levels is the essential starting point to economic progress. Globalization has helped Africans better appreciate the importance of their democratic rights and to aspire to proper functioning democratic systems that respect human rights and the rule of law. There is therefore a strong push to develop political systems that promote representative and honest governments. Governance in Africa is slowly improving and decentralized government taking hold. For example, no incumbent African leader ever lost an election until 1982. In the 1990’s 12 African leaders were voted out of office and 11 more since then. Countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal and Ghana are showing the benefit of democratic governance, rule of law and freedom of expression. Press freedom is growing, along with over all level of political activity in many Countries. While many problems remain, established standards of good governance arising from globalization are progressively taking hold in Africa.

With this has come greater economic liberalization. Governments in Africa are taking steps to privatize and de-regulate their economies to attract more private capital. The Ghana stock market for example, was the best performing stock market in the world in 2003 and continues to record strong gains along side the Nigerian stock market. The financial markets in Africa are progressively being deregulated and strengthened, the telecommunication and Information technology sectors are growing rapidly, new investment and mining codes are being passed into law to attract international capital, governments are implementing privatization programmes in the transportation and energy sector and legal and institutional frameworks for business are being strengthened. While not obvious to many, these developments have gone unnoticed to the international investors. Slowly but progressively, Africa is being looked at more closely for the investment opportunities that it offers in financial services, agriculture, outsourcing, telecommunication and natural resources. In response to these trends, the informal economy in many countries is also growing rapidly to capture the large reservoir of entrepreneurship and innovation that exists in this sector.

Education in Africa:

Another positive effect of globalization has been its impact on education. African governments increasingly recognize that Countries, which have benefited from globalization, have significantly invested in education. While most countries still lack the resources to establish a robust educational Infrastructure there is greater awareness of the role that education must play for the future and of the standards that must be achieved. Although still inaccessible to most, the Internet and other advances in information technology have opened up opportunities to improve the quality and content of educational programs. The effect has been a growing shift away from a reliance on the state to provide education, towards private schools and colleges. Governments are paying greater attention to education standards and enrollment. Gambia and Uganda for example, have registered 20% growth in primary school completion rate in the last decade alone.

Migration in Africa:
One important effect of the movement of people and ideas in a globalized world has been the growing number of Africans seeking educational opportunities outside the continent. This has been happening over several years and I believe that we are starting to see a trend where such educated Africans are increasingly turning their attention to the opportunities at home. Examining the number of financial and Information Technology companies being established back home and the trend becomes obvious. Furthermore, this “Diaspora effect” is making a major contribution to the economies of African Countries. Remittances to Africa from the Diaspora currently far exceed the levels of over-seas development assistance and have the potential to provide significant amount of capital to stimulate the growth of industries such as technology and real estate. The efforts to promote increased regional Integration is another important step towards greater participation in global markets by African Countries who recognize the pressing need to pool their resources and markets to create the scale and opportunities that can attract International capital and investment. African leaders have signaled their commitment to this process with the launching of NEPAD, which has as one its goals the need to “ halt the marginalization of Africa in the Globalization process”.

Against this background, one must ask the complex question: Why has Africa been marginalized? The theories are many, but the answers can help fashion initiatives and policies and policies to correct the errors of the past. While one can start from the history of colonialism, which created artificial, weak and unprepared nation states from the time of independence, and from the effects of the cold war, history cannot today justify Africa’s lack of progress in the last few decades. The prime culprit in my view is poor governments and the corporate economies. Africa has not been blessed with good governments and effective leadership to realize their responsibility in addressing, in one voice, the challenges of the imbalanced global trading system imposed on the world by the corporate centers, America, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and all their allies. Political systems and the quality of public service through which policies are implemented remain weak due to a small Human Resource Base. Economic governance, characterized by measures to combat corruption, promote better-functioning bureaucracies and better regulation has been poor. The delivery of education and health services has fallen well short of international standards. Africa’s debt burden has made it difficult for policy makers to address these weaknesses and to implement forward-looking economic policies. Furthermore, the current international trade architecture, focused in Africa primarily on agricultural products, makes it extremely difficult for Africa to grow through increased trade.

Achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty alleviation and the improving the quality of life through private and public sector Initiatives requires an Integrated effort of both Africans at home and brothers and sisters abroad. The mechanism and measures required helping African Countries take the right steps to benefit stem from the positive aspects of globalization, while minimizing the negatives and ending the continent’s marginalization.

My observation is that the current development consensus for Africa is weak in a number of important areas. First, it does not give enough attention to the administrative and Institutional capacity of governments in Africa to develop and implement sound reforms and initiatives. Simply put, most governments are administratively and technically too weak to manage their Countries. Substantial resources are therefore required to upgrade the caliber of people in government and to attract the best minds back home. This is ironic when one considers the impressive resources that are increasingly available to African countries from their own nationals now in the Diaspora. These resources are not harnessed and that is a priority, governments need to be more efficient. Today officials are overwhelmed and bogged down with too many issues from too many constituencies, including the International donor community and the multilateral institutions. They are paralyzed into inaction and have little time to develop strategies to improve their countries, much less to actually manage the programs that they sign up to.

Secondly, inadequate attention is given to the development of strong legal, financial and regulatory systems that underpin efficient governments, especially at the local level. Thus existing systems are abused through inefficiency, mismanagement and corruption. Most countries simply lack the capacity to upgrade the systems. As an example, despite the stellar performance of the Ghana stock exchange, it still lacks the resources to automate its operations and upgrade its rules and regulations to meet current best practices so that it can play a more meaningful role in attracting private sector capital.

Thirdly, the approach to developing high quality educational systems in most African Countries is failing primarily due to funding, which has not kept pace with population growth. Educational reforms is proving too complex for many governments, with the resultants lack of proper basic, technical and vocational educational level training, which in turn, produces a workforce that is ill prepared to the demands and challenges of globalization.

In summary the agenda and approach, to Africa’s development dilemma from the eye of a Ugandan is therefore superficial in the areas that count most. Government simply cannot implement all the programs and projects from development partners, no matter how well meaning. On their own, most of these lack the necessary depth, scale and sustainability to make a difference and because implementation is often a problem, the response has been to send down armies of consultants from the donor countries to implement them, in the end absorbing substantial portions of the available funding.

The agendas therefore need to be pared down and concentrated more on institution building, attracting high caliber talent, strengthening education and building an effective financial and regulatory infrastructure. When progress is made in these areas, I believe Africans on their own can develop the strategies that will allow them to achieve sustainable growth and progress in today’s globalized world.

The Initial thrust in achieving sustainable development, the diasporians as well as their brethrens back home need to address the following from a strategic perspective:

Support the best of existing work on Africa, in particular the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union, and help ensure this work achieves it’s goals. The African leadership has made some progress and the African people have realized the need for good governance and aspire to achieve that end. Programs have been developed which indicate an awareness of the direction that must be taken to engage the international community on Africa’s challenges. Programs such as NEPAD must be supported to help deliver implementation of existing International commitments towards Africa.
Offer a fresh and positive perspective for Africa and its diverse culture in the 21st century, which challenges unfair perceptions and helps deliver changes; and
Generate new ideas and actions for a strong and prosperous Africa, using the 2005 British Presidency of the G8 and the EU as a platform. The British leadership seems interested in playing a more constructive engagement of Africa’s challenges, involving diasporians and the African elite class to give her a forward thrust in tackling her problems.
Understand and help fulfill African aspirations for the future by listening to Africans
Diasporians through Institutional, organizational or Individualistic efforts must focus on six areas pragmatically: Economy & trade, natural resources, governance, conflict and security, human development, and culture and participation.

Tackling the media Image:

Conceptually, diasporians just like their brothers back home need to “wrestle Africa’s” media image from the mainstream media. Mainstream media such as BBC do not produce programs specifically for the African communities. International media houses have specialized in non-balanced reporting leaving success stories, events or positive aspects such as climate, culture and tourism potential unreported internationally. The formation of a strong media agency such as Al-jazeera would help highlight the other side as a counter-weight as a damage control measure.

Dual or Multiple Citizenship:

Dual or multiple-citizenship must be accepted as another aspect globalization and diasporians must take it on board so that an individual can be a citizen of one Country and linked to others. This would break barriers created by visa restrictions and fully improve investments inflows towards Africa.

Networking & Improving Contacts:

Diasporians through institutional frame-works and networks should improve their diplomatic footwork in influencing International Institutions and host governments in order to isolate despotic governments back home in Africa. Europeans banks that have been safe havens for ill-gotten money should be legally restricted through legislation in the European Parliament and the United Nations. This requires vigilance from diasporians, civil society and cooperation from western governments. International legal restriction should not be an issue only when Al-quaeda hits America and kills 3000 Americans but also when African kleptocrats connive, rape and defraud their people in cooperation with International Banks with the help of western governments, who by the way lend African governments the money.

Diasporians need to, organize and mobilize the African community and co-ordinate activities by developing networks, databases of information about existing activities, develop a platform for engaging the International community by highlighting Africa’s development challenges. This will be possible when a think tank is put in place as a process to set up the lobby group. The lobby group should be charged with a double role of engaging the International community as well as Africa governments specifically as a communication link in addition to others already in existence. The lobby group would help in networking Africans abroad to invest back home through joint ventures not just personal initiatives. It would help promote links with each other and Africa. Help hold in-depth discussion on issues and set measurable and achievable goals. Help the formation of networks at professional level where professional can influence mechanisms and seek change in securing access to capital. The lobby group would champion and re-enforce already existing demands for Africa achieving a more balanced global trading system and improve the media image of Africa in the International community.

Diasporians as economic players in their host countries will need to identify their power as consumers and producers, taxpayers to promote Africa ideas, goods and services through formation of an African Business forum both in Europe and America as a tool to achieve leverage in Trade negotiations at international and national level.


Human Resource Development and Health:

Discussions on skill transference and training should also be a focal point where retired civil servant diasporians can be given incentives to come back to Africa to re-enforce the effort to build human resource capacity as an object to build institutional capacity of government and civil society organizations. Western government through discussions in international diplomatic engagements with diasporians can finance this effort as the UNDP has initiated so far, though with minimal impact and desirous of more momentum.

Overtime, remittances from individuals for both individual consumption and investment in Africa has increased and seems to be the highest foreign exchange earner beating the traditional exports like Coffee in the case of Uganda. There is need for secure financial Institutions through which monies can be remitted back to Africa for investment. Investment in vocational education as a tool to gate way young Africans into the global job market is also important.

There is need to prioritize in social service delivery in particular education and health. African governments with the support of the private sectors can get a boost from diasporians as cores investors, technical advisors in the areas of technical education and health. Africa needs a health population to produce and this form it’s position in the near future as a strategic investment area since Asia, Europe and America are reaching investment equilibrium. Africa still in it’s economic virginity needs to strategically to invest in it’s human resource through education and health care service delivery to become tomorrow’s investment destinations.

Develop & Emphasize Local models:

Alternative models proposed aimed at Africa obtaining sustainable development are all based on external models and proposed without looking at African models and solutions. World Bank/IMF development policies aimed at integrating Africa into the Global Market have had both positive and negative impact. The negative impacts have been due to the object of unleashing capitalism on small economies without any element of a welfare state or alternative safety nets in Africa. The results have not been good and most Africans resent any enthusiasm in Economic liberalization thus unstable governments. In other words, African elites and the leadership must be constructively
engaged in policy development, Implementation and evaluation just like the intended beneficiaries of projects.

Regional Integration & Governance:

African countries will need to deepen their economic cooperation through regional integration; removal of artificial restrictions on the movement of African peoples and a thorough plan to create regional commerce will work through abolition of border tariffs and visa restrictions on the movement of African peoples. There is need to encourage the democratization and decentralization of the economic planning process. Governments should be encouraged to decentralize societal management. Local governments should have a role in the whole government economic planning process before the centers go ahead make budgetary processes. It must be an involving and consultative process for the beneficiaries to feel the total ownership of government programs, which eventually reduce the total cost of ownership.

On matters of governance, Africa will have to strengthen checks and balances across all sectors and develop effectives monitoring mechanisms. Civil society and community groups, which form the core voice of the very poor, will require more direct support. There should be need and commitment to enforce International gender equity conventions to ensure women’s active representation and participation in governance structures. An effort to focus on long term strategic planning by governments and institutions, strengthen the rule of law, protect civil and political rights.
Proactive Involvement in international Demonstrations:

There have been efforts aimed at exposing the effects of globalization through civil society campaigns like Oxfam Britain. Africa has a problem of the debt burden, which requires a comprehensive write-off. Africa too has little bargaining power at the WTO, which relegates it from global trade negotiations leaving discussions solely to the benefit of multi-nationals. Diasporians have not equitably played a major role in identifying the glaring impact the debt burden has played at decelerating the momentum for growth and development in Africa. There is need to mobilize the community of African diasporians to address this issue consistently in international forums as one of the hindrances to development in additions to trade imbalances.

Core Investments in Energy, Education, Transport & Communication:

In partnership with home/regional governments & the donor community, disaporians must attract core capital investments in regional, continental transport, energy and communication infrastructure in addition to strengthening the financial sector through both investments and stimulating legislations that create a good climate for investment.
Africa and Uganda in particular has a small skilled technical human resource base, which demands that Human resource development must be a priority for all development efforts. There is need to strengthen local languages through education and other initiatives to promote trade and integration. There is need to invest more in education by prioritizing our budgeting process, shifting resources away from military spending to social development efforts in Africa as a whole. There is every reason to invest more resources into vocational skilled training for young Africans as a tool of integrating them into the global system. Support more HIV/AIDS education and prevention initiatives. This will help mitigate the impact on Africa’s human resources and reduce HIV/AIDS impact on Africa’s strategic security and economic concerns. Encourage and invest more resources in to Universal Primary Education and life long learning as a tool of empowerment through grants, scholarships and infrastructural investment in education.

Integrating rural Africans:

There is need to support small-scale credit systems for local small enterprises stimulation in rural communities. Through micro-finance Institutions, re-invention of cooperative societies for small agricultural farmers will help integrate agricultural communities into the financial sector. Diasporians in collaboration with the small elite class in Uganda will have to assume the role of an intellectual think tank that will guide government develop policies that will have an economic trickle down effect and in the interest of their Countries. The need to pay attention of local specialized knowledge cannot be under-estimated in this approach. This will help bridge the gap between the highly technically skilled African from the corporate world and the local artisans and specialists of the local conditions on ground.
Land for Investments:
Africa still faces conflicts caused by a number of factors and land till, strong legal instruments are developed will remain one of the precursors of overt and latent conflicts. Land for investments will be of great necessity since it’s a factor of production. Strengthening of ownership of land with legal provisions for user rights and ownership will help create the necessary conditions for investments in Africa.

Natural Resources Exploitation:

The elite that form the leadership in Africa will have to develop a mechanism for effective and efficient exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of local people. Local people should own natural resources and some profits ploughed back into social service delivery to the local communities. As exemplified by the Oil Delta region conflict in Nigeria-the conflict was due to the resentment by the local people that they were not benefiting from the natural resources from their land. Companies should be encouraged through legal instruments to make social audits of investments outcomes, enforce environmental protection laws in order to remedy negative consequences of natural resource exploitation. Governments should stimulate investments in renewable energy by giving incentives in research. Infrastructural growth to facilitate natural resource exploitation should be a core strategic investment effort for African governments, the donor community and the diasporians. The promotion of corporate social responsibility, investment in value addition of agricultural products, access to international markets and the demand for accountability and transparency from multinational corporations will be a conscious effort by the African people and their friends to harness their resources equitably and sustainably for development.

Diasporians with Africa’s Diplomatic Corps:

Diasporians will have to engage Africa’s diplomatic corps in the corporate world to play a more constructive role in improving the image of Africa and discuss with them how governments back home can help create incentives for diasporians ploughing money back home for core investments. They will need to support technically institutions in Africa through capacity building. Support and promote African role models and achievers. They will need to examine the effect of African emigration on Africa’s development. The Diaspora will have to lobby western governments to establish an African community development chest to assist individuals and groups, particularly through not exclusively the African Diaspora, who wish to contribute to community development in Africa. The lobby groups in a network will have to lobby and pressurize western governments to adapt immigration and asylum policies to alleviate the problem faced by individuals and families from countries of conflict and open up more avenues for migration for the purpose of economic activities.

Culture & Participation and Conflicts resolution:

Cultural diversity and preservation for the benefit of the African community will be another important aspect. Promotion of awareness of African heritage and highlighting the return of the African treasures and artifacts and protection through copy rights will go along way to reposition Africa into the World as an investment desitination. Education and youth empowerment through culture and the search for more positive space in the media on Africa will help in boosting tourism and in turn bring in foreign exchange. Encourage student exchange with in African and between Africa and the Diaspora through sponsorship. Promote role models of Africans as achievers and mentors and address the need to modernize African culture where there is need. With a reduction in economic stress, investment in-flows improving and production going back to normal Africa will experience fewer conflicts.

Bibliography:
Jacque-Chai Chomthongdi, “The IMF’s Asian Legacy,” In Praque 2000:Why we need to Decommission the IMF & The World Bank
“Zoellick says FTA candidates must support US foreign Policy” Inside US Trade, May 16 2003. This article summarizes a May 8 speech by Zoellick.
George Soros, “America’s Role in the World,” Speech at the Paul H.Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, March 7, 2003.
Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake (New York:Random House,1973)
Join Africa’s Brain Drain,Or Rot at home, East African Publication January 3, 2005 by Charles Onyango Obbo.

Uganda:Challenges of the Digital Divide

The agricultural revolution like the industrial revolution made their impact on societies like the Information Revolution has and continues to do. Those of us who are paranoid that fat cats from corporate America and Europe have a hidden agenda with this Digital divide thing will simply have to appreciate global realities. There is no further pretence about corporate capital interests. The agenda for the capitalist elite is on and almost irreversible. The key concept is aggressive competitiveness in economic terms. Can Uganda ignore or block the flow of foreign capital into her economy while experiencing a land bonanza to investors? The resistances experienced to reforms in Uganda whether it’s about land re-allocation to investors or privatization of inefficient public corporations is purely a lack of cohesion on the direction the country must take especially among the political elite. The visible intellectual paralysis in institutional decision-making processes is attributable to a lack of a shared national vision for the future.

This intellectual paralysis is visible across most of Africa. Countries that have invested in strategically in key sectors such as energy, transport, telecommunicatio, education and security have stood out more competitve than their sisters stuck in the industrial revolution structural formations. South Africa, Tunisia today stand out of the crowd as Information states while the rest are the bloated governments of the past century. ICT like any other engine of development operates in an intergrated way. In Uganda today, much as government have made good of the policy incentives to develop ICT through taxation incentives, it has not done the same on energy which has hit the heart of ICT growth with constant power black-outs. That even with the formation of the ICT Ministry,politically its hard to tell whether the government has the vision to re-engineer business, restructure government departments and streamline operations in order to be in the lead of revolutionarizing economic production.

ICT today is an epicenter of development because it helps economies run competitively in this era of the information boom.Malysia; Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong have upgraded their economies because the right political decisions have been made by the top leadership. These Governments that have digitalized Information today have made a shift from industrial revolution structural formations because they see reason for being people-centered governments. They appreciate the good in building accountable and efficient national institutions that must serve country. In Africa we are stunted in the industrial revolution structures manifested by big cabinets, big armies, a Nambole parliament, a battalion of RDCs, LCs, DISOs, DPCs, Presidential Advisors, Mobilizers and all forms of Public Administration bloated ness. This characteristics render human capital redundant and non productive as predation on the state is perpetuated politically albeit ignorantly or deliberately.

Governments, all over the world are the biggest custodian of Public Information and must be the biggest employer of ICT so that it can complement and serve the Business Community and Citizens more efficiently. The Telecom Industry in Uganda is doing fairly well but needs infrastructural and policy incentives such as a stable energy supply and the right policy prescription to reduce cost of administration. The establishment of the Ministry of ICT must reflect a shift in policy and a clear vision of where the top leadership wants the country to go. The momentum for policy formulation and implementation must reflect a committed leadership too. The Private Sector in Partnership needs a government willing to re-engineer business processes. For government to fully appreciate the positive impact of ICT It has to develop a vision and the right policy thrust. It is from the Political vision that government will see the need to restructure its departments and reduce inter-agency duplication (URA, UIA, ULC etc) of roles and thus reduction of wastage and paralysis in decision making. It means automation of business processes and therefore a government going On-Line. Restructuring of government means elimination of whole or merging of redundant departments with potential to demobilize personnel. This is political and has cultural and political back-lashes but the good must always out-weigh the bad. The fear to take bold decisions especially when fully armed with knowledge of models that have worked should be discouraged.

The right policy prescription means addressing those strategic sectors that will help expand an economy for all. It means strategically addressing the energy demand issues in the immediate, short and long term. I means exploring renewable energy sources, it means revamping the education system to build a core human capital to meet the new global, regional and national market demands, it means forming strategic public-private partnerships, it means looking into the future and extrapolating our strategic national alignment with the emerging regional and global alliances. Finally it means revolutionarizing our thinking and attaching value to time. It is a shared vision that will bring cohesion on our development needs, priorities and then embark on building a future Uganda for our children.

Shaka Robert
Network Engineer/Biochemist

Oil in Uganda's Albertine Rift-watch out for fat cats from the corporate world

Heritage Oil? Executive Out-Comes? Saracen? Sandline? The Common Denominator in all these outfits is Tony Buckinghum aka 'Bishop" in the chess game. This piece of research would help the President and his strategic policy advisors to understand the trail of the multi-national corporate interests in our midst so that appropriate anti-dotes are deployed in the defense of our strategic national interests. According to the IRIN Web Special Report on Ituri, the "prospect of petrodollars in Ituri may have provided a new impetus to the bloody battle for control of Ituri in 2002." The Albertine oil concessions are likely to become the next big thing. Ituri region and the Lakes Albert, George and Edward, around which the oil concessions are located, as well as the Semliki Flats, are in the Albertine Rift.

The Albertine Rift has a massive potential to be the most productive source of oil in Africa. The Albertine Rift covers a vast region that forms the frontiers between Congo on one side and Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Sudan. Geological surveys have indicated potential oil reserves in the Semliki basin, south of Lake Albert. A Canadian firm, Heritage Oil Corporation, has been exploring western Uganda since 1997 and is in the process of drilling a test well in the area called "Turaco-1". In June 2002, Heritage signed an agreement with President Joseph Kabila to gain initial rights to a staggering 3.1 million hectares of eastern DRC, including eastern Ituri. Drilling on the Ugandan side of the border has shown positive results. In another illustration of the links between the security and commercial dimensions of the conflict, a founder and director of Heritage Oil, Anthony (Tony) Buckingham, was the "inspiration behind Sandline [International]", the British private security firm.

Canada-based mineral extraction firms account for 30% of the world investment in African mining, and their reputation is rotten on account of their aggressive methods. Besides Heritage Oil Corporation, controversial Canada-based firms include Talisman that fueled war in The Sudan, Diamond Works that gained notoriety for human rights abuses in Sierra Leone, and Bre-X Minerals which claimed it had discovered the largest gold deposit in history at Busang, Indonesia. Independent analysts later concluded that Bre-X had perpetrated a hoax "without precedent in the history of mining anywhere in the world." Bre-X’s stock value collapsed by US $3 billion almost overnight, raising questions that remain unanswered about regulations governing the Canadian mining sector. The Buckingham "inspired" Sandline is the British mercenary company that broke a UN arms embargo in Sierra Leone, allegedly with British government approval. Sandline was also the principle cause of the political uprising in Papua New Guinea in March of 1997.

Civilians and troops opposed to the Sandline military contract took to the streets after Brigadier Jerry Singirok made a public radio broadcast denouncing the contract. Sandline is infamous for its involvement, along with another mercenary organization, Executive Outcomes, in the war in Sierra Leone. Sandline was contracted for $10 million by Canada-based businessman Rakesh Saxena to execute a coup d'etat in Sierra Leone. Saxena is famously implicated in the fraud and collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, and his business dealings with the Saudi weapons' dealer Adnan Kashoggi. Saxena and his associates are reputed to have embezzled $2.2 billion from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce in 1996. The ensuing crisis caused the collapse of the Baht and of the Thai economy. Besides Sandline and Executive Outcomes, Tony Buckingham is also involved in another mercenary outfit called Indigo Sky Gem. According to a Sandline report on its incorporation in 1996, Tony Buckingham was the inspiration behind Sandline, Tim Spicer is its Chief Executive, Michael Grunberg has acted as a consultant and Nic van den Bergh was the leader of the team sub-contracted from Executive Outcomes to undertake some of the work in Papua New Guinea. At the Papua New Guinea Commission of Enquiry into Sandline's contract with the PNG government, Colonel Tim Spicer denied that Sandline was part of Executive Outcomes. However the Enquiry concluded that the 'controllers' of Sandline International were obviously Anthony Buckingham, Michael Grunberg and at least to some extent Mr Spicer.

It said Executive Outcomes was a 'significant' sub-contractor of Sandline and 'supplied a significant number of the personel' brought to PNG by Sandline. Tony Buckinghum is the senior director of Heritage Oil. The Heritage Oil Corporation website describes Mr. Buckingham merely as "a self-employed businessman with a wide array of international business interests, particularly in Africa. He is the founder of the Heritage Group. Mr. Buckingham commenced his involvement in the oil industry as a North Sea diver and subsequently became a concession negotiator acting for several companies including Ranger Oil Limited and Premier Oil plc." Heritage Oil Corporation is listed as a Canadian-based independent, international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the listing "HOC.A".

In 1997 Heritage Oil and Gas, its parent company was listed as a London-based Bahamian company with the Block 3 concession in the southern Lake Albert Basin and around Semliki Flats. The head office of Heritage Oil is in Calgary Alberta. Its partner in Uganda is called Uganda Africa Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of South African based Africa Energy Corporation, that has 50-50 split of any profits with the Heritage Oil Corporation. In fact Heritage Oil and Executive Outcomes have a long history together. Executive Outcomes fought against UNITA in 1993 to recover the oil storage area in Soya owned by Heritage Oil and Sonangol. At that time Executive Outcomes claimed that they were security guards of the Heritage Oil facilities, and that they were justified in their actions. It appears that Heritage Oil and Executive Outcomes are owned by the same network of mercenary corporations that includes Branch Energy (reputedly a Heritage Oil share holder), ex-South African troops, and Canadian mineral extraction firms. Heritage Oil has operations in Angola, Congo-Brazaville, DRC, Oman, and Uganda. Executive Outcomes was involved in Sierra Leone, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Canada. Measures to curb the commercial fuel of the conflict have been suggested by the UN panel's report, which recommends reducing development aid flows to offending countries; tighter controls on the trade in conflict goods; travel bans on individuals; freezing of personal assets; and blacklisting of selected companies and individuals from dealings with international financial institutions. Mercenaries, now simply called "private military contractors", some of whom are subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies in the USA, are violating the Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa. Moreover, the US is now completely dependent on mercenaries for the conduct of its defense policy, and most likely cannot conduct war without mercenaries.

Mercenary companies are reinventing themselves as humanitarian organizations, learning to use double speak with dangerous alacrity. MPRI claims to provide training in Democratic Transition in Nigeria, and a subsidiary is promoting Gender Equality mercenarism, presumably because its run by a retired female officer. Sandline describes itself as a "Peacekeeping" operation. The surrealism is astounding. Military Professional Resources Inc [MPRI], the most prestigious mercenary corporation in the world, is run by retired US generals, including some of sterling reputation and exceptional skills at humanitarian discourse. It is likely that either they or their African employers are naive about the historic crime they are engaged in. Unlike sovereign foreign governments engaged in training, they do not have accountability to voters, nor are they bound by a consistent policy, and in Africa they are not sensitized to the struggle to end neocolonialism and the need for African unity. The MPRI training of the Nigerian Armed Forces included simulated killing of Ghanaians.

The political ethos of the MPRI, like Bush's divisive Africa policy, is just wrong headed and ignorant. Supposedly the US has no problem using private military contractors to train the US army. After all the contractors are Americans, well grounded in American war doctrine, and their patriotism may be unquestionable, seeing as they fought for their country for no money, why would they do otherwise for high contract fees? However, ex US marine generals have no business teaching Africans how to kill other Africans. They should know better. The African governments may delude themselves in thinking that mercenaries are alright in activities that do not actually involve combat, such as logistical support to battlefield training and military advice, but this is a false understanding of what Africans need to be doing to resolve their conflicts. Private military contractors go where the Pentagon would prefer not to be seen, carrying out military exercises for the American government, far from Washington's view. In the last few years, they have sent their employees to Bosnia, Nigeria, Macedonia, and Colombia. Using a method first employed by the Cubans in the Congo, the US deploys African-American mercenaries for assignments that involve combat in situations that violate international law, or in wh
ich the presence of whites would raise questions.

The Rwandan government has come under direct accusation by UN agencies for allowing US based African American mercenaries access to the Congo. But the use of Diaspora Africans for sensitive mercenary work began during the era of the international slave trade, and is no different from the use of ethnic manipulation in Africa's "indegenous" conflicts . It is a conflicted legacy that causes a lot of confusion among all Africans, whether diaspora-born or motherland-born, and exploiting this says a lot about the US government. The apartheid regime excelled at the use of this strategy, but in the end it failed. The Organization of African Unity and the international revulsion over apartheid was just too strong. Perhaps the revulsion over the continued militarization of Africa and the looting and misery caused by shady mercenary programs will result in the fall of mercenarism. Motivated as much by profits as politics, these companies — about 35 all told in the United States — need the government's permission to be in business.

A few are somewhat familiar names, like Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Company that operates for the government in Cuba and Central Asia. Others have more cryptic names, like DynCorp; Vinnell, a subsidiary of TRW; SAIC; ICI of Oregon; and Logicon, a unit of Northrop Grumman. MPRI, boasts of having "more generals per square foot than in the Pentagon." But merceranries, or private military contractors, as they like to call themselves, can be singularly unsuited for involvement in conflict. And results can be disastrous. In Bosnia, employees of DynCorp were found to be operating a sex-slave ring of young women who were held for prostitution after their passports were confiscated. In Croatia, local forces, trained by MPRI, used what they learned to conduct one of the worst episodes of "ethnic cleansing," an event that left more than 100,000 homeless and hundreds dead and resulted in war-crimes indictments. No employee of either firm has ever been charged in these incidents. In Peru in 2001, a plane carrying an American missionary and her infant was accidentally shot down when a private military contractor misidentified it as on a drug smuggling flight.

When a United Nations arms embargo restricted the American military in the Balkans, private military contractors were sent instead to train the local forces. In Africa mercernaries keep conflicts going that should have been exhausted or that could be resolved by diplomacy. In all cases the use of mercenaries intensifies the use of terror and brutality as a tactic. In most cases the terrorists are trained by mercenaries sponsored by governments that are not prepared to accept responsibility for the techniques and doctrine they are passing on to Africans. The mercenary corporations in the African Union are driving out the legitimate business corporations. The case of the Heritage Oil Corporation is a case in point. Locals living in the Albertine Rift's Ituri region and the Rwenzori range may only now have began to reel from the effects of intractable military conflict. Once oil supplants diamonds and gold as the main commodity of the region, the number of casualties could go up as regimes entrench themselves even more deeply, corrupted and supported by mercenaries with greed for petrodollars.

Shaka Robert
Social Enterprenuer