Uganda: Museveni hits Europe

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

Netherlands hails Uganda on regional peace

                                                 President Museveni meeting King of Netherland Welen Alexander in Hague


President Yoweri Museveni has called on Western countries not to focus on residual troubled spots when planning for Africa saying most of the continent is peaceful and secure with no war or the threat of potential war.

That is great news. However ...... 

Rwanda has responded to regional criticism about its military deployment along the frontier with the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo saying its territory had been repeatedly hit by cross-border shelling.

“Rwanda did not deploy along the border for the sake of it. During a 10-day period our country was shelled 34 times,” Rwanda’s ambassador to South Africa, Vincent Karega, told BDlive on Monday 

That of course the shelling was instigated at Kigali's command to their proxy M23 seems to have been forgotten. 

" We are also concerned by reports of shelling across the Rwandan border, including credible UN reports that the M23 has fired into Rwandan territory. We call on the M23 to immediately end the hostilities, lay down their arms, and disband, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions."

“There are some problems in Eastern Congo, Somalia and parts of North Africa but almost 70percent of Africa is peaceful with no possibility of war. When planning for companies to invest in Africa, don’t focus on troubled areas because those are residual,” he said.

And let's not forget Tanzania and Malawi. 

However, the former Tanzania’s Prime Minister Edward Lowassa who is now the chairman of his country’s Parliamentary committee on defense, security and foreign affairs was last week quoted by he local media as saying that Tanzania was ready to go to war if need be.

Nigeria maybe ? 

In the last 18 months, Islamist militants have terrorised the north-east of the country and killed hundreds of people.

Abia state used to be known as the kidnapping capital of Nigeria - families of politicians and businessmen were targeted on what seemed like an industrial scale.

How about the Central African Republic ? 

In Central African Republic we have seen new displacement this week in the northwest of the country, sparked by new fighting there.

Heavy clashes were reported between Saturday and Tuesday between unidentified armed groups in and around the towns of Bossembele and Bossangoa, 150 kilometers and 300 kilometers northwest of the capital Bangui respectively. As of now fighting appears to have subsided in the area, but the situation remains very tense.

Then there is North Africa 

Yes. If unchecked, violence could intensify, at least in North African countries. Hardline Islamist ideology has gathered steam chiefly among poor young men left adrift amid youth unemployment and lack of development. Deepening conflict could also affect oil markets if installations in Algeria or Libya – both major hydrocarbons producers – come under threat.

The President, who is on a three-day working visit in Holland, was meeting the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Frans Timmemans at his residency at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Hague.

Timmemans was accompanied by the Director Sub-Saharan Africa Micheal Stibbe and the desk officer for Uganda Ms. Eva Van Woersem. The meeting was also attended by Uganda’s ambassador to the Benelux countries and the European Union Mirjam Blaak and that of the Netherlands to Uganda Alphons Hennekens.

He said what has been lacking in Africa is visionary leadership that could easily identify strategic bottlenecks that have been keeping Africa back.

Yes. Somewhat ironic though.

“There are various bottlenecks including the wrong attitude towards the private sector that led to the nationalization of private assets and the lack of infrastructure such as electricity generation. But these have been identified and the private sector is now emancipated,” he said, adding that they are now addressing the issue of markets and trade through regional integration.

Well it is fairly hard to gain a revenue stream from privately owned business the only real option is corruption. If they are part of the public sector you can raid their revenues and as a bonus sell the rotting hulks off in a privatisation drive.  

                                                                             Well yes

“There is more progress and Africa is becoming more vibrant. I speak English but am getting more business from the Chinese than from my English speaking friends. Europe needs to support their companies to invest in Africa,” he said.

I am guessing he does not speak Dutch.

On the conflict in Eastern DRC, President Museveni said they are trying to make sure that Eastern Congo does not become a haven for terrorists and called on political leaders and development partners to support President Kabila to concentrate on developing an ideology and building state institutions.

Maybe he would like to remind Rwanda of that.

“The idea is not to improve our CVs as having been president. The idea is the mission. If your country is sick what diagnosis do you have for it,” he said.

In Museveni's case that mission has so far taken him 27 years. The Irony Museveni on presidential terms. 

“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.” He promised Uganda a new constitution that would empower the people and limit the powers and the time a president can serve.

The new constitution came into effect in 1995. Under this constitution, elections for members of parliament and the president should be held every five years and a president can only serve for two terms each of five years.

Minister Timmermans said his government highly appreciates President Museveni’s vision and efforts in Africa and in the Great Lakes region to bring peace and stability and pledged their support to more peace keeping initiatives. He said there is need for a change of attitude in the western world to have more enthusiasm to know what is happening in Africa.

“Government highly appreciates your vision and efforts in Africa and the Great Lakes region to bring peace and stability. Change of attitude is necessary so that people here can be more enthusiastic about what is happening in Africa,” he said.

Yes... there is of course one slight huge problem. 

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Museveni was lauded by the West as part of a new generation of African leaders. His presidency has been marred, however, by invading and occupying Congo during the Second Congo War (the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998) and other conflicts in the Great Lakes region. Recent developments, including the abolition of presidential term limits before the 2006 elections and the harassment of democratic opposition, have attracted concern from domestic and foreign commentators.

For all that there seems to have been an improvement in Ugandas attitude towards regional security issues.

The two leaders discussed various local and regional issues including the situation in DRC and Somalia.

The meeting was also attended by Uganda’s members of parliament Monica Amoding for Youth and Kyewalabye Majegere Waira.

I am not convinced but..... 

Great Lakes Region: Remembering the millions that have been killed in the last 30 years.

Rising Continent blogs

Dying in the Great Lakes – A Living Portrait

The event will take place in London on Saturday 14th 2013. 

That is September.

What is it?

It is a public spectacle against the indifference of the West to the suffering of Africans.

The truth of that statement should make us all stop and think. The Western world has for centuries nicked everything we could get our thieving hands on in Africa, including at our worst its people. From slavery in the past to Coltan today we have been complicit in the deaths of millions of Africans. It is not a question of blame, we today are not to blame for the slave raiders of  previous centuries but make no mistake we are responsible for that exploitation. The wealth that we enjoy in the first world was accumulated through centuries of colonial exploitation. That we now turn away from engaging with the people of Africa and demanding that they are afforded human rights, food security, political freedom and education is an indictment on us. 

 

It is a claim to Western governments about their responsibilities in the plight of the victims of political and military leaders in the Great Lakes region they support.

There is no shortage of Crocodiles in the region. Kabila, Kagame, Museveni lead the list but there are many others.

                                                          Radio Netherlands Worldwide

It is an act of raising consciousness among the victims and their supporters to show that change depends on the determination of people.

It is a small scale visual representation of the tragedy that millions of Africans in Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi experience since the 80s until today.

That the West is largely ignorant of this history tells of the need for this it should not be just limited to London though.

It is a testimony about one sad and revolting picture of the chains of production of electronic devices [iPad, iPhone, mobile, laptop, play station, etc] that the Western world cherishes and cannot live without.

It is a way of honouring and remembering the millions of people who died in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo since that the Ugandan president Joweri Museveni started his bush war in that country in 1981.

It is a bit of a stretch to blame Museveni  for everything. That is actually one of the problems with Rising Continent, they see thing in black and white when there are always shades of grey. I certainly don't think to many Ugandans look back nostalgically at the " reign " of Idi Amin. And yes I realise that the Bush War is post Amin.

Script on the day

The event will bring together as many people as possible in a square in London to be indicated a few days before 14/09/13. We will play the dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular, but also Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. Participants will lie down on the floor with blood-stained clothes for 30 to 40 minutes, when others will be watching the scenery while being blindfolded. While all this takes place in silence, four people will speak out alternatively the names of the missing ones. A flyer will be distributed to passers-by asking people to write down on a scale of 1 to 10 how indifferent they can be to message of the spectacle.

That is a good idea.

Encrypted by history

This action will be filmed by two Swiss journalists who are trying to make a film about our regional struggle with a particular emphasis on the issue of raw materials in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I get the feeling that this protest would get a better response if it wasn't so political from an African perspective.

How to get involved

We ask you [if you are in London or can travel there] 40 minutes of your time to support the millions of Congolese, Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundians whose leaders are responsible of their death with different levels of responsibilities. Provided the significance of the initiative, we ask people who intend to get involved only to register on the facebook event page – [type DYING IN THE GREAT LAKES on your facebook page] if they are effectively committed. Honoring our dead requires some seriousness in our commitment.

Thank you in advance if you plan to get involved.

I think the organisers need to think more about what their objective is. Western indifference or African domestic injustice both are I concede linked but in 2010 the voter turnout in the British General Election was 65.1% focus I suggest on the victims and make it clear to the West that it is also our responsibility to halt the violence in the Great Lakes Region. 

" There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves. Many of you know influential people abroad, you must call these people. You must tell them what will happen to us... say goodbye. But when you say goodbye, say it as if you are reaching through the phone and holding their hand. Let them know that if they let go of that hand, you will die. We must shame them into sending help."  
Paul Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda

Kenya: Why are Kenyan men so hot for Ugandan women ?

Radio Netherlands reports

Orgasms are for everyone: Love Matters launches in Kenya

Love Matters Kenya is a new web/mobile platform. This RNW project gives readers in Africa, and beyond, facts and news about sex, love, health and relationships.

How did I survive without this ? Oh yeah I am a Kiwi.


My heart’s broken, will I ever be able to love again? If I’ve only had anal sex am I still a virgin? Why are Kenyan men so hot for Ugandan women? Is it true that using contraception can make me infertile? Everyone has questions about love and sex – that will never change. But now the answers are just a click away.
Love Matters Kenya offers tips and wisdom from local and international sex experts, bloggers and journalists. For example, Valentine Njoroge, Kenya’s premier sex advice columnist, will be writing a weekly column ‘Valentine, On Call’.

Its riviting stuff though. Well the anal sex bit was I am guessing.

Find the answers, find the clinic

This web/mobile platform, featuring a Sex A-Z and extensive resources, will publish fresh stories on a daily basis. The initiative is about providing access to straight facts, free of prejudice, scare tactics and euphemistic language.
Users can use an interactive map of principal sexual health clinics in Kenya’s major cities.

Probably an interactive map with brothel locations would be more in demand.

Each week, a selection of Love Matters’ stories will also be printed in Kenya’s major newspaper The Star.

On page 3 ?

A first for Kenya

Love Matters Kenya has no local precedents. It is grounded in the philosophy that if people are given honest and sex-positive information, they can better make decisions that not only have a beneficial impact on their personal lives, but also society at large.

Yawn

Access the Love Matters Kenya website and join the Facebook group to participate in the discussions.

Against my better judgement.

Love Matters

Love Matters Facebook

African prostitution, the motorcycle taxis and auto mechanics

Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports

Goma prostitutes furious over motorcycle taxis curfew

Prostitutes in the city of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, are furious. They say that since a curfew has been imposed in early October on the cheapest and most popular mode of transport, the motorcycle taxis, they are running out of business. 

By Gaïus Kowene, Goma

“In the past, when business was bad, I would still get something from the motorcycle taxi driver who would take me home,” says Zawadi Kabuo, who sells her sexual favours in the taverns of the Majengo neighbourhood, north of Goma. “He would spend the night with me and subtract his fare from the money he owed me. I have no father, no mother, no husband. What am I supposed to do to raise my three children?”

Goma has to contend with a civil war thousands of internally displaced people and now angry prostitutes and I assume pissed off motorcycle taxi drivers.

Armed attacks

Kabuo's financial troubles started early October after Goma's mayor, Kubuya Ndoole, imposed a curfew which forbids motorcycle taxis to operate after 6 o'clock in the evening. The argument behind this measure is that the drivers, many of them ex-militaries and ex-policemen, are suspected to be involved in recent armed attacks in Goma. Many in the city believe it has a strong link with the M23 rebel group, trying to cause a trauma in big cities, thus playing down the sense of control by the state. 

Goma is in fairness to the Mayor  the murder capital of the Congo as Alex explains. 

Motorcycle taxis are most popular among locals because they are cheaper than mini busses (1,000 CDF per night ride, which is less than 70 euro cents). Antoinette, another young prostitute, says it is one of the main reasons clients from a certain segment of society are no longer going out.

“The few clients who own cars go to nightclubs. But most people from the middle class stay at home. It’s just impossible for them to go out. And it’s our work that suffers.”

I assume the possibility of being murdered also enters into trhe equation.

In hiding

The alternative would be to work during the day. But this can only be done in the outmost discretion since prostitution is considered an abhorrent practice in the African culture. That is why Kabuo moved to a neighbourhood where she can receive her clients in hiding.

Her strategy is to pretend to be waiting for a date in one of the taverns. “During the day, customers who come to drink find me here. If they are interested in my services, we discuss the price then we get on with the act. Prostitution is my only means of survival,” she says.

African society is conservative in many ways but I just don't get the feeling that prostitutes are hated from my reading and my conversations with Africans in New Zealand. It is more an acceptance that sometimes people are forced into situations not of there choosing to survive. The other day I read on Chris Trotter's Bowalley Road blog  some thoughts on the effects of violence.

" The long-term effects of violence are even more useful to those who use it to exert power and control over others. People become extremely fearful – not only of the person or institution directly responsible – but of the whole world. Their trust in the essential rationality of human interactions is shattered. Very often they withdraw from society altogether. A terrible fatalism takes possession of them and not only the ability, but even the desire, to act independently is lost."

I don't disagree with Trotter but it would seem to me that when the levels of violence are acutely high and also the prevailing norm a new form of tolerance develops. The institutional violence that is inflicted on the population of Goma along with random lawlessness brings about an alliance of the oppressed and that is something Mayor Kubuya Ndoole needs to consider while trying to hold together his broken city.

Not secure

The curfew and its direct impact on the means of transport have also brought security concerns for the prostitutes themselves. Some of them walking back home late at night have claimed to have been often harassed and, in some cases, even raped by soldiers on patrol.

Sandrine: “The security that they brought makes us feel even more insecure. One night, for example, a soldier asked me for my ID. Because I did not have it and my pockets were empty, he forced me to have sex with him for free. He let me go only around one in the morning. I didn’t know where to go at this time of the night because there were no motorcycle taxis. It’s really pathetic!”

In effect the night has been abandoned to the lawless soldiers and there rebel counterparts. As I write this a Congolese friend has been here and his sympathies are very much with the motorcycle taxi guys. He can't see any good coming out of depriving them an income and quite possibly bankrupting them.

Mayor in trouble

Prostitutes in Goma want motorcycle taxis to resume their normal working hours, so that they can work in better conditions. They say if the situation doesn’t improve, they are prepared to invade the mayor's residence. 

“All of us sex workers are preparing to march down there one day," Kabuo lashes out. "We have already prepared what we will say to him. What does he expect us to do? Is he prepared to look after my children? We will go live with him and let him feed all the prostitutes in this city.”

Given the Mayor's options I think letting the motorcycle taxi guys work again might be a good idea. 



Meanwhile New Times  ( Rwanda ) reports

Unlocking sex trade dilemma

Alice Ishimwe, 30, is a married woman, a mother of three and a former commercial sex worker.

She quit the world’s oldest profession five years ago after a drawn out period of struggle with law enforcers coupled with harsh conditions she used to operate under when she was in her early 20s. 

This was the same period when many of her age-mates were already pursuing higher education. 

She normally traded her body from Gatsata, a suburb of Kigali City where illicit alcohol, commercial sex workers and auto mechanics mix freely.

The " auto mechanics " caught my attention what on earth have they done to be catagorised along side prostitutes in status. Even in liberal New Zealand we generally speaking don't encourage women into prostitution as a career path but guys who can fix cars are well respected. 

Ishimwe says that when she was young and charming, most of the auto mechanics in the area wanted to have a piece of her.

Quite.

“I had quality time with the mechanics,” she told The New Times in a recent interview at a vigil of two prostitutes who had been murdered under mysterious circumstances. 

She wore a remorseful face throughout the interview, not because of the death of her former colleagues, but the profession that remains unlawful in the country.

Yes interesting to see the New Times angle I have given my opinion on New Times before

 " New Times Rwanda confirms it is a propaganda tool....does confirm my view that anything published by New Times is well... eligible for entry in the Booker prize for fiction. 

“Every single time I meet a Gatsata mechanic, it evokes memories of my nasty past,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I am reformed. I am a human being; I feel ashamed. I have a family to provide love to,” she narrates.

She says she decided to join the trade as she was an orphan but later quit after realising that it was risky. 

“I feared for my life. My husband vends fresh food in Nyabugogo market and I am a house wife. Life is meaningful,” she says.

This is wierd reporting even for New Times. I sometimes think they just invent interview subjects.  

At the time, The New Times reported that a record number of 18 commercial sex workers had puzzlingly been killed.

When police established the motives behind the killings; some ranged from allegations of transmission of HIV to theft and married men who killed the commercial sex workers to mask their wayward habits.

The nature of the motives somewhat condemns the commercial sex workers into a life of vulnerability.

Isn't that just fucking hilarious tragic am I to assume that the police mearly established motives and then did nothing ?

Two weeks ago, MPs recommended that commercial sex workers be protected from assault or any other kind of mistreatment.

The legislators further advised government to closely examine and tackle issues that force the young women into the profession.

The meeting had been called by members of the Chamber of Deputies who advocated for a needs assessment for prostitutes and discuss strategies to accelerate the fight against HIV/Aids pandemic.

But civil activists argue the MPs fell short of looking at the root causes of vulnerability of the prostitutes.

Well we are talking Rwanda after all.

“Criminalisation of prostitution makes those involved vulnerable to any sort of assault; they live in a state of fear,” Aimable Mwananawe of AIMR Ihorere Munyarwanda, a non-profit organisation, commented during an interview with The New Times on Tuesday.

The Penal Code, particularly in its articles; 204 and 205, makes it a criminal act for one to indulge in prostitution.

“Passion killers target prostitutes – a prostitute cannot report the death of a fellow prostitute to police because that is the last place she can go at will,” said a city lawyer who preferred anonymity.

He argues that there is no precedence in the history of criminal justice, where attorneys successfully won a case pitting a prostitute, adding that criminalisation of the act serves no purpose but it makes those involved vulnerable.

Exactly prostitution is a victimless crime brought about in no small part in Africa by the failure of the state.

He asserts that governments can curb prostitution by encouraging family bonds and instilling of moral values among children as well as providing robust social protection programmes to vulnerable groups.

“It is not easy to enforce the provisions [penal code provisions on prostitution],”Police spokesperson, Superintendent Theos Badege, said during a telephone interview with The New Times.

“We need to empower them economically and arrest the vice by emphasising the essence of moral values to our daughters,” MP Pelagie Mukantaganzwa told The New Times yesterday.

I can sort of get a bit sick of the morality arguments how ever economic empowerment would go a long way to bring about a better society.

Authorities believe there are about 15,000 commercial sex workers in Rwanda. Most claim they practise the vice due to lack of alternative sources of income.

Just for the record the cost of a prostitute in Uganda is about $8.00 NZ ( $6.00 US ) I am guessing less in Rwanda and the DR Congo. Sex tourism is on the increase in Africa. It would seem that Rwanda has its priorities wrong once again.