Would Mwenda would have published the information about the oil documents if Karuhanga had not presented them in parliament?
23 Oct 2011 3 Comments
in Corruption, media in Uganda, Museveni and NRM, oil
Walter Duranty
With due respect, Andrew prides himself for digging up news not published anywhere else: shocking security secrets, but I suspect that what he digs up is the sort of humdrum stuff a journalist with ‘’influential’’ friends in the state should have, and this does not make this information more important to Ugandans than what they read in the Daily Monitor or Observer. I don’t know whether it’s me but I never read any of these ‘secret intelligence’ files published in the Independent magazine. May be, it’s just me but I never waste my time with them.
Anyone with connections to the people in power (in which case Andrew looks every bit of it now) can assemble stuff like that and make anyone look foolish, but is it something worth anybody’s time. For instance, if you juxtapose Martin Luther king’s public image with his personal shenanigans, you can make him look very foolish. Also true for John Kennedy with his womanizing. So what’s the point: that king and Kennedy were attracted to power to gain access to high class women?
As a long time admirer of Andrew Mwenda, I feel so disappointed in what he has become today. What has really happened to him? I had him down as one of the Uganda journalists that he will one day win the Annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism. The prize was established and run by the International Policy Network (IPN – a UK based NGO) to “encourage and reward writers whose published works promote the institutions of a free society” according to how its patron saint, 19th century French-born Frederic Bastiat, saw things. He had a deep distrust of government in any form and thought regulation and control were inefficient, economically destructive and morally wrong, or as IPN puts it: It supports “limited government, rule of law brokered by an independent judiciary, protection of private property, free markets, free speech, and sound science.”
Like I said, Andrew is right that good journalism is about news based on real sources and objective data but his reaction on Capital fm on ‘’Alan Kasujja’’ show as soon as Honourable Karuhanga published the documents, points to the fact that he is no longer doing journalism but spin. There was no need to publicly defend the ministers implicated in the said documents as there are people, like Tamare Mirundi(President’s office) and Pamela Anakunda(Media centre), already employed to do that kind of work.
At the moment, I guess most elites in Kampala are now looking at him in the same way Americans looked at Walter Duranty who worked for New York Times in 1930s. Walter visited Russia when Stalin was the leader and reported that nothing was happening there, yet people in Ukraine were dying of famine for up to 10 years. But because of his connections with influential people in both the Russian and USA government, he ended up with a Pulitzer Prize which still stands up to now. Surprisingly, Walter was British and born in Liverpool. I had never put down ‘Liverpoolians’ as dodgy till that moment.No wonder, Liverpool F.C have broken my heart in the Champions League more than any other team, especially that ghost goal from Luis Javier García some years ago. Chelsea’s Gallas cleared the line but the linesman saw it differently. I will never forget that painful moment.
Abbey
Executing a dictator does not automatically bring democracy to a country, Gaddafi Should be Buried immediately
23 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in culture, cultures, history, international, International Issues, Museveni and NRM, Political murders
Putting Muammar Gaddafi’s ‘trophy’ body on show in Misrata meat store is so wrong at so many levels. This is so non-Islamic. Why can’t they just bury him? I cannot see any Black African treating any of their dictators like this. I cannot see any Ugandan treating a dead Museveni like this regardless of what he has done to some people. I can’t see Africans treating a dead African leader like the way Misrata NTC has treated Gaddafi, as in like, not according him burial as soon as he was killed. Gaddafi’s body is in a meat packer, on a washed out mattress and kids are taking photos of it. I cannot see a black African keeping a dead body on display for days. We fear ghosts (EMIZIMU).
It will be so sad if Gaddafi’s body remains on display for another day. He should be buried immediately. I can’t see Ugandans treating Museveni’s dead body like this because our culture does not allow us to do so. Yes, black Africans are capable of executing their leaders in the same way Doe or Gaddafi was killed but I cannot envisage a situation where Ugandans put a dead Museveni on display in Gulu town for days to become a temporary tourist attraction. If it ever happens, I will stop to publicly call myself a Ugandan.
Killing or executing a dictator does not stop other dictators from propping up unless a system is put in place that stops them from abusing the trust of the people they lead. Do people really want to tell us that Liberia has been the fountain of democracy in Africa ever since General Doe was executed by Prince Johnson in 1990? The way Gaddafi was killed is nothing compared to the way Doe was killed.
The Doe video became the best-selling in West Africa. He was stripped down to his underpants; his face was bruised and bloody. Doe asked to say something and asked for his hands to be untied but they instead cut off one of his ears. Then Johnson later chewed the ear in front of Samuel Doe. The following day, Doe’s mutilated body was paraded through the streets in a wheelbarrow.
You can watch this on YouTube if you wish at:
This guy was executed in 1990 when Museveni, Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Mugabe and other dictators were already presidents of their respective countries. Did this stop Museveni from becoming a dictator in Uganda? Actually, it is argued that Museveni started showing signs of dictatorship in 1990s. So, do proponents of such executions want to tell us that Museveni has never watched Doe’s execution? This is the same period Museveni abandoned his communist economic ideas and went for Obote’s economic policies because the former was not working.
Like I said, dictators usually feel the death of a fellow dictator for a few days but later things go back to normal. They don’t see themselves as in like it can easily happen to them. Current Dictators are going to mourn Brother Gaddafi for a while but this is not going to stop the dictatorship on the continent. If Africans don’t put in place systems that can create checks and balances, dictatorship will always be part of Africa.
Abbey
