The original creator of the award winning song "Wipolo" is Col.Abenego Orech Okot not that "pastor"

I have decided to blog what I should have done so long long time ago but didn't! The song "Wipolo" oft heard on the Ugandan airwaves and which a certain Pastor George sung and that eventually won a continental award, was composed by one retired Col. Abenego Orech Okot and not the said pastor! Well by now, the pastor might claim copyright but the truth need to be restated for historical reasons: Pastor George is not the composer of the song Wipolo. The man to be credited for the song in very alive and kicking and that I am very proud to be his grandson and a blogger and such is my authority in writing this.

But who is this Col. Orech and what is his connection with music? Retired Col. Orech is a Lango from Apac District, Northern Uganda. He is now a pentacostal reverand and still alive and still strong and composing and directing music even todate for the armed forces in Uganda.
Better known in the armed forces as Director Orech, he was study music in Great Britain was the Military attache of Uganda in Uk in the 1970s and he retired from active service early 1980s to do what he does best: Composing and directing music FOR GOD. The song Wipolo by title, tune, and original language is just one of dozens of songs he has composed for his own pleasure, and his hobby NOT financial gains and was well known in Northern Uganda's pentacoastal circles through conventions he was part of. I know why I feel the music, love orchestra, the guitar and the drums! These have been in the systems much early.

Let Mr. George not fool the world! George is an Atesot (From Teso, Eastern Uganda), how come he is was so good in composing only one hit wonder in a foreign language he even doesn't speak and not even on in his native language? For critiquing, the phrase "mulokole" is not (leb)Lango but Kiganda! But does he admit he is not the composer of the said song? And to his relief, the old man is not interested in suing him! Repent "pastor" for all the lies you have lied about the song "Wipolo" let the truth be said and the very word of the song speak to you too.

Disclaimer:
Apart from the modifications to the original "Wipolo" sung in Lango, the video, the translations, the voice etc, of the song Wipolo By George Okudi, the original creator of the tune, and the song is Col. Abenego Orech Okot, the former Director of Music in the Ugandan Armed Forces in the 1970s. Col. Orech is still alive and this blogger feels some body has cheated somebody of intellectual property.

Diseasing Sub Saharan Africa: President Museveni orders probe after a blog entry?

Oh yes! I feel so so so and so nice inside! One day after a Salam Taki article about the potential sources of Ebola in Sub Saharan Africa, President M7 of Uganda seems to have been thinking the same! He has ordered! Read the Salam Taki article here and what is on the internet below:

Uganda probes Ebola origin
Afrol News 13 December - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered an investigation into the source of the Ebola outbreak, which has been hitting the East African for over four months.

http://www.afrol.com/articles/27525

Thank you Mr. General President, a thank you not because you could have read Salam Taki but because you should a concern. Had you read Salam Taki, I could have bestowed upon thee the title of the 1st e-President of the Republic! Talk of e-gov and e-citizenship!

I am looking forward to Google's Knol project. So I rushed to Google's Official Blog and found another definition of beautiful:

The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped
to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search
facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to
make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful
knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who
can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today
simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by
Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge.
This is our main goal.

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a
new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge.
Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject ...

Google, please select me too to try the new free tool "knol". Say you are picking Salam Taki's Henry from Sub Saharan. I will be deligheted and will go Oh lord, teach me what to write on Google's "knol" ...
More importanly, I look forward to and I yearn to read these free authoritative information ... better than Wikipaedia perhaps read more on Knol at Google News!

Ebola just after CHOGM2007 stinks

Has there ever been an investigation on the possiblities of biological warfare and exercises in Sub Saharan Africa?
The ebola outbreak in Uganda after the historical CHOGM 2007 repaints the grim reality in Sub saharan Africa!

Ebola is a virus-caused disease limited to parts of Africa. Within a week, a raised rash, often hemorrhagic (bleeding), spreads over the body. Bleeding from the mucous membranes is typical causing apparent bleeding from the
mouth, nose, eyes and rectum.

But then in some instances it is as if some one wishes that let there be a disease called ... and Sub Saharan Africa bears the brunts! Africa, Congo, (Sudan) Sudan, and Uganda is being diseased unchecked. So we have ebola, malaria, HIV/AIDS, name it, we are always diseased up and have to beg mercies all the time!

Let me clear the airs! I am only wondering! And I rarely wish to blog about the journalistic intents in the media any were! I hate to be taken by the winds of journalism! But human beings and their nitty gritties are to be sprayed upon a la wilder beasts as the Monitor article reveals and I must go to where my family is and I am asking: Why a rare version of Ebola just after CHOGM 2007?

I can't think of not going to the beautiful Western Uganda to quench the needed and so they quarantine humans! But come the festive season, am heading to Uganda, North or South, East or West, ... Juba, Southern Sudan needs a break!

Sudan a la carte

Whether she is served as Kush, or Sudan, Darfur, Southern Sudan, but New Sudan, the fact is that his part of the world is hot and also cool; dry and and also wet! Lying astride the hot Sahara desert and also the cool and wet Congo basin, she is a mini Africa even if her daughters, and mothers bleach to alter her systems! Get Sudan a la carte!

Juba is a very large surveyed village! Khartoum is better and six times bigger than the greater Kampala, Darfur is in the desert, Maridi County, in Western Equatorial State, the bride of the Sudan! With Oil, Diamonds, Gold, Timber, name it, Sudan is a true a version of Africa! And so her people bleach!

Today, I saw a vehicle! I saw her lights! But I heard a sound and was terrified at the way she was being driven! An old ambulance rushing meaninglessly and dangerously true! And as such, the motor vehicles simply rev and Stop! Anywhere. Parking is stopping even in the middle of the streets - my hoof, and at the bend of round abouts! Children, some as old as 15 years old, rev their senke commercial motor cycle away! So they make their money! And so do contractors needlessly block public roads.

The Sudan! Sudanese? Why After all, many of your own, don't know you. Your children deny your skin and so bleach hopelessly! With three governments, two presidents, dozens of armies, thousand generals and counting, why not give the New Sudan a chance? The New Sudanese are are a reality.

Tale of two generals: Bashir and Salva Kiir

Its over a fortnight since one general called on his cadres to prepare for war! Gen. Umar Bashir literally called upon his citizens to prepare for war against (the forigners of?) Southern Sudan! Mr. Bashir, Four decades, killing and drinking the blood of your own is nothing but cruelity of the highest order! You are not worthy the presidency!

One week later, another Gen. Salva returns from the Bush of the US! Dodging Khartoum and gliding through Nairobi, Kenya he lands in Juba international airport to a hero's welcome! Not with the ululation of the women! Juba was literally paralysed. Riding atop a Landcruiser toyota, waving at the marginalised of the marginalised, he looks like the better leader for whole of Sudan come 2011. Long live the Vision of New Sudan!

Salva didn't disappoint. His tone was that of a general truelly tired of war. (Southern) Sudan nolonger wants to spill more blood! But then, a mosquito bites him reminding him that the Yambio incident in which a general, a colonel and a major were killed in cold blood by his very own, could derail all past comradeships!

Present two generals, and am convinced one is a warmonger and the other is a leader. Let the citizen say! Come 2011! Salam Taki, Salam Tai! Your peace ( is) my peace!

Ms. Margaret Orech's Story

One wonder woman, one wonder lady, one wonder mum, her incredible story! I long for the day her story will be written! It must be written! I am proud to be her son. God will make a way where there seems to be no way ... goes her favourite song and belief! Bakata, never indulge in worries! She would often tell me!

Back in 1985, one lady, her three sons. Your truelly the eldest then six years old and right now in Juba, Southern Sudan, James four years Old then, now in Yorkshire North England, and David, then the baby, two years old and now student in university. The last born, Esther is studying in Algeria.

In 1985, when the rumours the Anyanya 2 /SPLA /M insurgency in the east was threatening to engulf the better part of Southern Sudan, circumstances forced her to single handedly smuggle her children from southern Sudan, through Congo and into Uganda. Its is a tale to be told! She was captured, and tormented by the Sudanese police in Yei, but managed to smuggle herself and her three children to freedom and eventually .... It is a story!

Come the year 1999! Tragedy befell her! An ambush by the LRA of Joseph Kony sent her to the abyss of life! Robbed, ... and amputated, she was to get back into business ...

Amman, 18 November 2007- Members of the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines (ICBL) from over 60 countries are participating in the Eighth
Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, starting today by the
shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. During the meeting, over 1,000 delegates
from governments, international agencies and civil society will discuss
progress in the implementation of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits
the use, production, stockpiling and trade of antipersonnel mines.

Ms. Margaret Arach Orech, Ambassodor of International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Salam Taki: Yambio, Western Equatorial State

Now blogging from Juba, Southern Sudan. Salam Taki! The mood is not so handsome. Western Equatorial State!

I travelled from Kampala to Juba by road and private means and had my patience severely tested! Horrible road networks on the Arua-Koboko-Oraba-Bazi-Morobo-Yei-Lanya-Juba route wasn't a joy ride.

But after a week in Southern Sudan and as one writes now, some uncouth soldiers from the joint Intergrated Unit (JIU) comprising armed forces of the SPLA and Sudan Armed Forces, on Sunday November 2007, clashed and exchanged live bullets with the police in Yambio Western Equatorial State, Southern Sudan and killed among others, a Major, a Colonel and a Brig. General!

The result is a dampening mood among (Western) Euatorians in Juba because the cause for the clashed was much trivial and great potential leadership was wasted needlessly. In this part of the world, life is water!

The plight of the people of Western Equatoria State need to be readdressed urgently least the hard earned relative peace the people of Southern Sudan are enjoying could effectively laid to waste. And remember the feared LRA rebels of Joseph Kony are in Western Equatorial too. Salam Taki

Hotel Oscar, Alpha Bravo, ... I can read you clearly! But bear with me. Salam Taki

Mugabe Bashir, Zimbabwe, Southern Sudan and Darfur

I promised two options: Blog from Juba Southern Sudan or blog about Sudan! I was touched by a monkey tail! I now saluate you salam taki like they would in Juba Arabic. Hello! Issim tai Henry Owera. My name is Henry Owera. I apologise for being absent without notifying my readership! Am back and new! Bye bye Borrowed Civilisations. Welcome Salam Taki!

Am thinking south! Southern hemisphere, thinking about Africa, her enemies and woes! Thinking about Darfur, Southern Sudan and the factor of Bashir's policies and camparing the situations there to what is bedeviling Robert Mugabe efforts to heal the scars of colonialism! Oh! beautiful Zimbabwe! You will soon be a heap of rubbish! Thanks to Western neocolonialism.

Bashir basks in glory in the Sudan and wrecks havoc on Sudanese people in Darfur, and Southern Sudan, and his attacks are againist humanity! And what has the UN, US and the British governments done!? Nothing but Pretended to cause a change yet continued to make pounds of millions of dollars. Come the people of Zimbabwe.

The people of Zimbabwe have to collectively suffer on behalf of their president, Mr. Bob Mugabe. Why punish the people because their president implements a nationalistic reform so unpopular to her majesty the queen, Great Britain, and the US? Hostile and selfish international policies and sanctions are wrecking havoc in Africa, I dare say! They are weapons of mass destruction and retardation. Change.

Either, the African Union, and the UNO should be disbanded for double standards and ignoring the realities in Zimbabwe or the US and Britain should be expelled from UNO for promoting imperialism and causing mass destructions in Africa through proxy wars! Otherwise why shouldn't we begin cementing the grave of the dream of the United States of Africa.

Salam Taki! Henry Owera is for social justice! Let Mugabe be invited for CHOGM 2007 in Uganda if indeed it is a common wealth so to say. Thank you Gen. President!

Thinking South and being touched by a Tale

Am refocusing and thinking and South.

1. I was invited to become an African Path blogger by Joshua, the co-founder of African Path. I was truely flattered. I had no problem but a new challenge ...

African Path is one of the most exciting African citizen media projects. It is an online platform whose content comes from bloggers, readers, artists, ... Global Voice Online

I am now an African Path Blogger! And now truely thinking south. Africa and her woes! What is happening! What should be done? What SWOT analysis?

2. I was invited by moderators to join FIKARA a Yahoo group listserv. Fikara - Creating African Solutions:

Description: What kind of Africa do we want for ourselves and our children? Do we accept politics, culture, economics as it comes? Do we think we have to accept those as a natural given law?, or do we have the capacity and most of all the Will to change? And what do we want to change? Who defines our problems? ... Is corruption a problem? For whom? Is dictatorship a problem? Is democracy the answer?

Join us in defining our African based solutions and make them work, no matter how small the scale. You can make a difference. And with that, I decided to become a member of FIKARA

3. I became a member at Global Development Gateway.

dgCommunities is both a place to find knowledge resources focused on development issues and an interactive space where you can share your own work, participate in discussions, find people with similar interests and more. We have more than 36,000 members worldwide - and over half are in developing countries.

I am currently a member of the following communities:

• ICT for Development
• Knowledge Economy
• Civil Society
• E-Learning
• Aid Effectiveness
• E-Government

Which better places to network, get yourself informed and thoughts and self published!

4. I was invited by a Skyper who wanted to make a new friend. As in war, the first victim in the internet is the truth. Echo Kilo, you got me thinking, probing and flat in the sky. We built some rapport, attempted a game of chess online. ... I am flattered to be somebody's new friend. Yet another achievement for me.

5. When I read an article that advised thus: Go to Southern Sudan, young man, there’s money to be made, I realised Joachim Buwembo had whispered to me. I am now rethinking south since I was born in Uganda, raised in Maridi Western Equatorial State, Southern Sudan till I was six and later returned to Uganda in 1985, was in Yei in 2005 and Juba January - March 2007. Perhaps my next blog article will be written in or about Juba, Southern Sudan. Just a perhaps because I am truly astride Uganda and Southern Sudan.

No need for Military training to be compulsory in Uganda

Military (hardware) training and donning military uniforms might be a was. The information age needs citizens who are skilled in information age warfare. but here is a farce being contemplated in Uganda: making Military training to be compulsory in Uganda. Do we need military training? Is somebody trying to entice citizens to the gun? Sun Tzu! We don't need militarisation. But is a nation being prepared for the new wars? Could the NRM party in Uganda be playing mind games on its rivals at the expense of a nation?But where are the Military scientists in Uganda, Southern Sudan, and Africa?

What is any fellow trained in military hardware and without an AK 47 gun in Africa? Soldier? Strategists? or or cowards? Isn't Uganda being remilitarised needlessly? Supposing we don't need among other irrelevants to don military uniforms, to know how to dismantle the AK 47, need guns, need retreat to learn how to pull a trigger in the information age and don't want to pull the trigger any yet the battle has to be fought, was that proposal the best somebody to come up with? Where are the national strategists?

Times are changing. Today and for a very long time, guerrilla tactics in wars like the one pioneered by General Y.K Musenveni in 1981 in Uganda will pit the large force against an indefeasible, and undefined (small) force. And no one wise will dare an endless conventional war anymore. No one wins so only dialogue is the way forward because today's battle are being fought from countless fronts and any Lt. General might lose track of developments since it is an eternal battle! You will eat as you fight, go to school because you are you are in the midst of the heat, have nNo geographical battle maps because the battle ground will be in your mind, internet and the waves, every where and no where. War is turning out to be any attempt to survive. The battle ground and tools have changed.

Let me let us into my favourite and a public secret author and reading: Sun Tzu, the Chinese military philosopher and his multi-applicable writting - The Art of War. In Sun Tzu's addictive reading and oldest military treastie, the message is addressed to the General and the commander. The general and the commander is you, the citizen. Teach a citizen some ICT skills, hacking, cracking, Information literacy and Sun Tzu's philisophy in the Art of War, leave us to operate guerrilla warfare tactics and national stratgeic planners will be amazed of how many birds these skills will accomplish in a battle and all without militarisation!

Sun Tzu's Art of War is actually a strategy of life and is therefore applicable to every day life activities like in marketing, advertisement, business, I even use the Art of War in games like chess. There is a which can cause one who proposed the said compulsory military training for citizens to rethink the ideas. From my tacit and explicit knowledge, let somebody learn from Sun Tzu The Art of War when;

Laying Plans
1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. 2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. 3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in ....

Read more by clicking Sun Tzu: The Art of War or copy and paste the URL http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

Once bitten, twice Europe and Africa and this time the resource in ICTs

It is on record that Europe, and the Americas (Read: Western Economies) conquered Africa the continent, exploited her human capital - call it slavery -, natural resources and that the result is that Africa was raped senseless and her earlier civilisation laid bare, laid to rest while Europe is no doubt among the super powers in the 21st Century. Europe's industries and economies developed at the expense of Africa. Africa the cradle of humanity is the laughing stock, she is being ridiculed, her underdevelopment, hoodwinked, her backwardness, confused, and hopelessly partitioned to an extent that she might never reap sense from the age that was Industrial and while still beautiful and bare, she also might consume her own.

With imperialism, neocolonialism, balkanisation, unfair terms of trade, compounded social engineering, canopies all over, yolk at her neck, hackles still at her legs and naked, will the Western Economies show mercy to this poverty stricken continent in the Information era, the Information Society, and Knowledge Economies? Should Africa still afford to be exploited in this age and era of globalization? Does somebody want to chart their way to prosperity at the expense of anothers ignorance and naivety?

Can Africa still afford to close her eyes in prayer the way she did when religions were introduced only to conclude prayers and her pride, her fertility long gone, her resources swindled, her social systems dismantled, her territories partitioned, and voiceless even by the 21^st century? Shall Africa know ICT the technology, ICT the culture, ICT the business, ICT the industry and ICT the tool, and that Internet could be a tool for futuristic conquests? Shall Africa research ICTs the way she should? Shall Africa set a research agenda for her selves and an appropriate agenda? Will ICT help Africa make up for the past loses due to imperialism and colonialism? Or might ICT and the internet cripple Africa in relation to other economies? Once bitten twice shy! Should Africa trust Europe not to exploit her again? Does Africa still trust? Is the exploitation mentality over or being dealt with? Today Africa and Europe are in another cooperation of sorts. They are going to bed over a western civilisation called ICTs: EuroAfrica-ICT'’s webportal is devoted to [Research and Development] R&D cooperation between Europe and Africa in the field of Information and Communication Technology.

The EuroAfrica-ICT initiative is ambitious but pragmatic and results oriented. It is driven by a strong determination to build on and complement existing successful programmes and projects, and to be widely open to the European and African ICT communities.

The fourth EuroAfrica-ICT awareness workshop will be held on July 26 & 27 at the Hilton Hotel (Nairobi, Kenya).

Africa has borrowed a civilization and would definitely wish to understand ICTs better. Yours truly is enjoying this civilization too. I am not attacking the organisers of the said workshop. And I wish I could attend this working shop too! What would be besides my motive? What would be besides your motive? So this is not a hard feeling to Europe but then here is a fellow and his routine exercise: Understanding the nature of the Information Society and its dynamics. I believe politics and policies in other economies might have negative and exploitive effects on Africa as a continent in my beat - Information Society for which ICTs are a key factor. Perhaps I am also an advocate of fairness and am not only playing the vanguard to Africa - if I could effectively, I would

What is at the heart of the matter when Europe - very highly developed and Africa - the lowest developed continent discusses and cooperates in an ICT research? Is it a cooperation among equals? What is the motivation for this drive? African development or alternative European markets, damping grounds and dustbins? How many successful ICT programme and projects in Africa and from whose perspective? What will be shared? What will be exchanged? What will they learn together and who will want to be the teacher to the other? Whose research agenda will it be? What and whose opportunities will be addressed? Whose culture to whom? Is a 50 / 50 deal possible?

What is happening? Isn’t Africa courting exploitation in the farce of the ICT movement? Workshops? Yes! WorkSHOPS. Shops! Africa might leak bigger wounds being naïve in the Information Society than the wound inflicted by exploitations of human and natural resources. Africa is becoming a damping ground for outdated hardware from Europe and in the long run when these gadgets become worthless, Africa will have no choice but built a grave environmental hazard in her own backyard. This pain is being outsourced as donations by other economies and yet Africa begs for them!Naivety!

Where has Africa put ICT in relation to Science and Technology? Will she then catch up when she has borrowed civilisations? What is Uganda, Southern Sudan and Africa to do? Wail and wail? No! Are we developing our own scientists or are we striving to only engineer principles of sciences - creating engineers?

The ICT department in their own world: Why Information systems will fail!

ICT / IT Departments are simply the new players in many institutions in Africa, Uganda, Southern Sudan and world over. This department is being introduced into some institutions with inadequate knowledge as to what ICTs ought to be doing and without knowledge that along came a new management challenge, task and a culture. Many times the expensive and modern ICTs and the internet have only been introduced for reading e-mails, browsing the internet and to replace the donkey old type writer and the other aspects of integrating ICT into management and the management of the new resource is neglected by top management. ICTs are hardly integrated into other every day businesses activities and neither is it manned effectively. Will we ever realise the potential of Informatics in Africa, Uganda, Southern Sudan and in the south?

Has nobody noticed that the juicy ICT / IT department seem to live in their own world in relationship to other organisational departments? I have! I say "I have!" because I am making a very tamed as opposed to a wild allegation. The ICT / IT department hardly complements management. Whereas human resources, financial resources, knowledge resources and logistical resources were being overseen and directly managed by top management, information and ICTs or ITs are proving unique to manage - so we delegate its management to a Generation X guru! A who? "Those people of IT"

Many have noted and I have also observed and agreed that something amiss is happening, reflected in a functional and systems line of thought and have come to some agreement with the self:

These departments haven't been tamed by top management. The entire institution and the ICT / IT department are therefore lead from behind by young computer geeks and professionals who unfortunately are not in top management. When it comes to the IT / ICT department, top management is unfortunately at the mercy of these geeks. The geeks speak a unique tongue that management has no choice but to follow.

Talk of lack of Hybrid Management. Top Management is inadequate when it comes to properly managing the ICT / IT department let alone lead in integrating ICTs to better organisational performance. As a result, the information, ICT / IT department is many a times (mis)managed through delegation, outsourcing, hope and merciful wishes to "computer specialists" - Let those who know IT better manage the department for us - and there begins the unchecked mismanagement of Information Systems, ICT / IT departments and projects. Do we get to know why Information Systems, and projects will fail us in one way or another? Do we? Oh yes! We lack Hybrid management! So who is to blame? (Mis)managers! Who bears the blame? The (mis)managers too! If the ICT / IT department is lucrative, do we have an idea of the cost of having it mismanaged?

Have I presented a grave situation in your institution? Do you want it tamed? Are you in East Africa or Southern Sudan? Will you aspire to become a hybrid manager? No!?
You may contract me also, or else kiss bye bye to your career because you will be retrenched and archived if you don't join the new breed of managers called Hybrid Managers!

So what the fuss a Hybrid Manager?

"A person with strong technical skills and adequate business knowledge or vice versa .... hybrids are people with technical skills able to work in user areas doing a line job, but adept at developing and implementing IT application ideas" - David J. Skyrme

Join the club because you will know the difference between Management Information Systems and Information Systems Management and that you badly need both of them to operate in this age. Manage ICTs. Make ICTs work for you, learn Information Literacy. Reduce on the failure rates of ICT Projects / Information Systems. Understand ICTs. Borrow a Civilisation!

Nose to the South

The Sudan Tribune reports that Southern Sudan's H.E Salva Kiir is taking no chances with the (political?)developments in Southern Sudan! Six cabinet posts were (unbelievingly? / strategically?)reshuffled and among those affected were the Vice President of Southern Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar and Mrs. Garang. The vice President is no longer enjoying his previledges as a Minister of Housing and Lands, while Garang's widow, who was Minister of Transport and Roads, became a Presidential Advisor of Gender and Human Rights and ironically becoming a symbol of an entrenched gender imbalance in the same government she is supposed to advise on gender strategies: Women in Development. Women and Gender. Gender Mainstreaming. Gender every where, gender no where! Gender no where, Men 99% Vs Women 0.99%. Invalids possible.

Meanwhile UgaBYTES reports that the East African Secretariat down south in Tanzania wants SMEs to show case internet potential in East Africa through its East African Community Regional ICT Support Programme: Open Call for Proposal. Project should cost between 5,000 - 20,000 Euros and last a maximum of 12 months!
The deadline for applications is 9th July 2007 at 17:00 (EAST) Visit http:///www.eac.int for more

A note to the 27th Comrade. How do you do it? You seem to be allover the Ugandan blogsphere! Get for Ish a site meter! Am busy, thinking, waiting and hoping! Let her have a borrowed civilisation too!

It is a borrowed civilisation to blog

1 Sudanese Pound = half U.S. dollar

Could the Sudanese pound be the strongest African currency against the US Dollar? US $= 2 Sudanese Pound!

The old Dinar is no more! The Old Sudanese Pound has been buried! Welcome the New Sudanese Pound! Show them what you must! Bring peace!

I hope this currency can bring about peace in the much troubled parts of Sudan - from Southern Sudan to Northern Darfur, Malakal, Nuba Mountains, .... - even in the face of the much cursed presence of Oil wells, Diamond, Gold, Timber and business opportunities in African nations! Bring the promise (New) Sudan. Welcome July.

I salute Cdr. 1st. Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, SPLA/M, VP Dr. Riek Machar, the people of Southern Sudan and all who were true to the liberation of the marginalised of the marginalised. My tributes also goes to the heros of freedom and liberty in the Sudan! My tribute to Cdr. Dr. John Garang, and also to the unsung hero, the one Cdr. always consulted, respected and saluted by all: Cdr. Gbutala. Here is an eulogy the other great unpublished, unsung, unknown, and yet a hero of the liberation movements of Sudan.

Gbutala
(A poem by Africano Mande, Southern Sudan)

There lies the MAN,
There rests the pride of nation,
The symbol of a cause,
In the yards of Maridi

Behind you,
Maridi still sings that,
Gbutala!!
You are the departed,
We are returning the soil,
When your are not in sight.
Maridi will still hold your spirit.

I will live to sing kudos,
For the nation to know,
For the children to commemorate,
For the pride of Maridi,
That not pledges,
Have tamed and derailed you.
Your past is free from guilt and apologies,
It gave gentle radiance with ideal.
Your struggle is free from shakedown,
It excelled you into the MAN.

Your will,
Is indestructible.
Your philosophy,
Consistent with reality.
Your vision incumbent.
Yes!
Westerners in the west,
Southerners in the south.
Called it natural reality and maturity.

As a living,
The oppressors built you up against their will and objectives,
Into a hero.
Your spirit denounced by them,
The vision detained,
But I promise that,
The generation will pick up your fallen spear,
To announce your spirit and free your vision.
I promise,
No sand,
No wind,
Will bury your footsteps.
No history,
Will out live yours.
No mind,
Will change your philosophy.
Your memory
Will give light to the blind.

With this post I welcome July 2007. May you bring the promises! Bless Uganda. Let me see similar blessings in Southern Sudan, Darfur and world over....

Uganda and Southern Sudan: National Information Society, ICT Policies and Strategies

Southern Sudan, and Uganda need their own national ICT, Telecommunications, Information Society, Media and appropriate human resource development policies and strategies suited to their local settings as opposed to borrowed and adopted models. In this way, they will have an Information Society of their own, avert social exclusion in the Information Society, build a strong national knowledge economy and be competitive in the knowledge economy - and never forget that the world's nations are in a competition of sorts - at war with each other!

Alarmist, isn't it? Yes! It is at http://borrowed civilisations.blogspot.com - be touched by the tales. What could be at the horizons of the developments of the Information age?

Let me analogise what I am driving at with my favourite board game! Chess. Chess is a game of strategies. In a game of chess, within the rules, two players aspire to capture each others king! A piece called the king and the chess player are the key players whose interest must be guarded: Avoid captured for the king and win the game for the player! Pieces have weights and some are collateral damages in the course of the game! The pond is the least among pieces in weight but only better than the surface on which the game is played - no value but it is needed for the game to be played! Cowards will flee before the end of the game. Brave fools will play even in the face of an impending defeat. Style and strategies are used against varying opponent and some times, no one wins in a game of chess! A draw is possible in chess!
In the Information Society, let us work towards a draw or avoid being the surface nor the collateral damages most economies of Africa and the world find themselves.

Each country will need its own set of key players in Information Scientists, information professionals, engineers, and researchers of Social Informatics at the helm of these national strategies so as to avert the exports of isms, being the pond and turf and receiving borrowed civilisations, extensions of foreign strategies, policies, goals and objectives. Southern Sudan, Uganda, Africa and indeed the world should guard against being mere chess pieces! Cease being players for foreign policies in your own national policy! At worst, let nations behave like kings or be the chess players themselves in the lengthy spell of the Information Society! We might never leave to see the winners at the end of it!

These policies and strategies must be strategically local to nations, with local goals, objectives and understanding for the times ahead. These policies must be safe guarded and to to their destinations by generations and generation. In reality, Information Societies are war fronts be it economical, cultural, and militarily. Let us not forget that the internet was firstly a military tool! A tool to win battles! Has any one forgotten the history of the internet! What brought about the internet? What is it with the new quest for IPv6 The Next Generation Internet?

King captured So we have learnt

Sometime I get to over indulge in verbal arguments! I am slightly rebellious and will provoke thoughts! Will argue over nothings and serious issues, suspect points of views, argue for fun, argue for entertainment and also to demystify the different shades of everyday life! I argue with friends! Serious with the rest. Deeply also controversial at times by my own insight! But how shall we explore unhindered? At times, arguing is better suited than discussions, debates and all those formal dialogues! It is a democracy of sorts, so personal, true and will teach you to hold your emotions! Yap at will, relieve stress, and the mind, brain and soul seem to take in and vomit at a faster pace. At the end, you balance your individual scrap notes - and for pride's sake - in private!

You see, I love deity (God), humanity, distrusts religion and every thing religious, women and men inclusive! Women first! Women first because of my not-so-larger-than-life love for women! Love justice, hates democracy for puppet African countries, their leaders, name it! A non conformist and I will brag here: It is a reason perhaps why I am more innovative, solves problems faster, open minded (so I will claim), than you! Sorry them. I try to get the better of them by using some sociological perspectives that I have clues of! I must justify. And also justifies in a game of chess -the battle of wits and when their king is captured, I win!

I argue with Henry, Anselm, William, Andrew, Sam, Francis, Mike, - No girl? - Dan, Oltar, Don, ... Okay! McDorothy, Pat, Flav, Jes, Justine, Irene, Charity, Slyanto, ... and others. It is a whole spectrum of professionals: Social Scientists, Information Technologist, computer scientists, Civil Engineers who construct VIPs with baby ventilations, Lawyers, Food(ists) Scientist, Librarians, accountants, Vets, ... eh!, Information scientist - yours cruelly, and with a hard-to-tell bloggers. What about my friend who is a she? Well we also argue, agree, disagree and reconcile and fall apart like Kampala City's urban plan.

So we argue. Yes! Maybe we are still young - threatening a decade - my -hoof years- and are trying to understand our being, context, what is bedeviling us, our environment, society, ways of life, politics, information, Oh Yes! Religion, norms, dos and don'ts, social action, why we sleep, marriage and weddings, sports, games, borrowed civilisations for words, name it! Systems Theories, Occam's Razor for logic, Freudian theory and religion, Functional Theories, Humanist Movement, Bahai faith, among others! I add: Sex!

We argue! this, this and that, and we avoid attempts to exercise weak intellectual muscles which could lead to a Somalia situation by agreeing to sort it out in a game of Chess! My idea! You lose, you are taught! You were not smart enough! Yours truly wallops them with a regularity, so gets the bragging rights, sometimes and the right to teach them. These at takes us to square one, another argument, another game, a game of scrabble - now to clarify who our old school mates were ... get a lesson on perspectives to life ... so goes a learning process.

The first victims in the information society

Unique definitions and understandings of what an Information Society is. What is this information society that the WSIS 2006 couldn't even think of defining? Where are the [information] Scientists we have ignored in the information Society and age? I sought some answers from Google about what an Information Society is thus: define:information Society And here are some picks and my comment about those definitions are in bold:

That Information Society is:
A society in which economic and cultural life is critically dependent on information and communications technologies. Popularised in Europe by the 1994 Bangemann report on 'Europe and the global information society'. Similar to the NII and GII concepts but focusing less on technology, more on uses.
www.christlinks.com/glossary2.html

Christlinks.com's definition is an ICT only definition void of the substance called Information! Unfortunately, this is perhaps the driving force behind the ICT4D movements, Telecentre Movements and indeed the force behind the recent WSIS and reckless borrowed civilisations in ICTs.

An information society is one which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is becoming a significant economic and cultural activity. The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart whereby wealth is created through the economic exploitation of knowledge.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_society

This definition is ICT Shy of the reality of our age. With Wikipedia, this definition may change! Perhaps Wikipedia shouldn't be relied upon for any definition !

A society in which information becomes the main product or essential to other products, with a recognition that organizations success depends on the ability to exploit information, and most workers depend on information flow to perform their jobs. In practice, information is heavily dependent on computerised processes and the internet.
www.csa.com/hottopics/internet/gloss.php

CSA.COM's definition cometh closest! Although With the high convergence of ICTs in a computer, ICTs are more than Computers only!
However this is my buy for a definition of Information Society

A type of society in which information and information access plays a central role, economically, socially and individually. Governments are making efforts to bring countries into this era.
mobileman.projects.supsi.ch/glossary.html

Another ICT shy definition!

Now what is the Information Society working definition of different motives, countries', and organisations', definitions? Isn't Europe's information society unique from Africa's for instance? Must Uganda's, Southern Sudan's, West and South's definition be one?
Individual infrastructures in terms of GDPs, education, literacy, human demography, industralisation, science and technology, rural vs urban, basics for life and think of the level of their Information Society.
I repeat: Where are the Information Scientists we have ignored in the information Society and age?

Free Computers to Africa

Free! Because that is the suitable catch phrase for dumping outdated computers to Africa! Dumping, Yes! Dumping because these computers are stone age old, monstrous consumers of our inadequate electricity, with snail fast processors and worthless specifications.

These are hoped to accelerate the (under)development of Africa! The developed countries might have realised that it was far much cheaper to donate outdated computers to Africa, and her rural communities than try to dispose off these toxic gadgets in their tiny countries without endangering their environment! Africa has to will to receive these kind donations! We receive naively! Maybe they give naively too! We (we and them) might be adding to Africa's woes!

Here is a reality bound for Kenya. Similar ones are already in Uganda and soon in Southern Sudan!

Outdated computers bound for Africa : Kenyan researchers will use laptops to aid water analysis

Twelve laptops that have reached the end of their use in the North Hunterdon/Voorhees Regional High School District will soon make their way to Kenya.

That was ICT and environment. Now I ask, where is the wisdom we have lost in ICTs? How many National ICT strategies for African countries? And whose ICT strategy? Ours or their corporations?

Stabbed!!

T14 has stabbed Arsenal fans and believers of loyality! No more bragging rights in the names of T14 for Arsenal! How else would a captain stab?

He had to go! Thanks for your services to Arsenal FC but you chose to leave in the evening of your career! So good night to the impending darkening of your career!

I wish I were a psychologist! I wished to better read the looks of tata Tea!

Gilberto is a more deserving captain! V. Persie, Bayo and Theo now have more playing time! Ehhe! November Bravo!

An urgent call to have information literate citizens - Part 2

We need a skill to safe guard the citizens of the information society. It is called Information literacy. I too feel Information literacy is urgently needed for that age they call the an Information Age, and the Knowledge Economy! Gullible is also word in English language! I haven't agreed to a scholarly definition of Information Literacy, but let us look at information in the context of our times. There is too much information all around. The more information we get, the less knowledge we seem to derive, the more we get confused, the more we realise our senses and brains are inadequate in sustaining understanding and causing wisdom proportional wisdom! If this post is too lengthy to complete, try Gullible.info and tell us something!

My blogging clarification of Information Literacy is that skill needed in the information age for reason to and how to get, where to receive, how to share, and knowing the motive, context, and possible outcome of consuming that package bundled in what is called in information. I will not give any other definition but will refer you to other attempts towards defining Information Literacy. Definition 1, 2, and a Site, otherwise you may also want to Google the internet for a definition of Information Literacy. Lets continue!

By information I mean that which through a communication we receive, makes us have knowledge (I correct, Not Wisdom yet!). I hate to define information. It is as vague as differentiating it from Information, communications, misinformation, and disinformation!
It is as abstract defining information as it is a defining what is God! You only come miles close but never get to the epicenter! Too many opinions and hard choices to make. Yet we must seek meaning. And thank God I must mistrust every religion! Lord where are you? Help me understand.

Let it be put another way: Everything you read, hear or otherwise lets it be known to you mind, soul, and brain through a communication, education system or as information you consumed are hardly pure! You consumed a mixture of truths, lies and facts and falsehoods, imaginations and fiction, thoughts and adulterated, distorted history! Information, communication, and education, socialisation and interactions have purposes! There is a motive behind every information and communication you receive, send, forward and share! In the information age, you are interacting with a billions squared possibilities.

At borrowed civilisations, allow someone to be one of your knights in the information society and age! Ok? Oh yes! Thank you your worship! Did I hear you say you too! Ah! Otherwise revisit the site always to know what tickles this blogger and and combine synergies with the blogger when ever need arises! Let me remind you of the route again: http:www.owerahbits.blogspot.com You can't get lost! You may ask Google, and other search engines. Ask for Henry Owera or Borrowed Civilisations. Or anything to do with what is happening in the information society especially in Uganda and Southern Sudan.
You have just consumed my motive in that nutshell!

But why the fuss about information literacy now? Because we apparently are living at a time where there is a precious commodity termed information! These have been influenced by factors such as a more aggressive capitalist market, a communication revolution causing more social interactions of cultures, knowledge economy, attempts for control of resource, and virtualisation of realities!

The world has become tinier and we must face the realities of the information society, and the information age. FUDs (i.e Fear Uncertainty and Doubts) mostly in businesses, Propaganda, Big Lies (employed for politics, imperialism and maybe religion) sheer shared imaginations, and fiction are here with us. These can't bring about human development the majority need! Who will clarify information to you?

People in Africa, Uganda and South Sudan and other people with similar realities must survive, become more knowledgeable, participate in the information society like other people but are being bombarded and hindered by an avalanche of information, some worthless, evil, misleading and corrupt information. Information literacy skills are urgently need and these must be entrenched in education systems if the quagmire in Southern Sudan, Uganda, Africa and other worlds are to be wiped out!

True Wife Confessions

I have always wished to understand what ticks at the minds of the daughters of Evelyn! The psychology of women!
Readers of borrowed civilisations might wish to read all the confessions from number 1 - till the current Confession #1891 and counting at the blog True Wife's Confessions.

What your wife wishes
she could tell you..or not.

Notable misses

I haven't blogged some issues because of a grudge I hold against them!

Information Society Day. May 17Th. I hate them! I think another interest is undermining important issues for a healthy information society. They are busy widening a market. The Information Society they preach is one for the Internet and computer society! A starving child everywhere doesn't need the Internet nor the information society that promises foreign technology. They need information! And if that information will be delivered on the horse's back so let it be! Why scream ICT for Development (ICT4D) then wispher Information for All? Why? Because ICT4D is a hoodwink. The fact is, it is ICT4Business and the poor should be caused to buy! To hell with ICT4D at the moment! Africa, Welcome I4D Information for Development.
Urgent Call to have information literate citizens -Part nth are on the way. I haven't forgotten. The portion is being concocted!

Benny Hinn came to Uganda! Just a spit away, he came! I didn't hurry to attend his crusades nor find the miracle and annoitings. Why bother? Why did he vow never to perform miracles to a live television audience? I am a tele-christian. No more offerings! These prophets buy Humvees, gulf stream jets and cream suits using the lord's offerings!

Nigeria vs Uganda! Part one was so painful. Uganda was robbed 1:0 For the first time I had to hate the Nigerian team. Kanu! Kanu scored their legitimate goal while the the ref was a thug. He cancelled Uganda's legitimate goal!
Part 2! Kanu begins by promising aid to the Uganda Heart Foundation through his Kanu heart Foundation! He thought Uganda's hearts needed to be well attended to. He was about to wreck our hearts again! So bad for him! Uganda won! 2:1. It was another tele-entertainment and revenge! Kanu had prepared to be hospitalised in Uganda!

Uganda matyrs day! June 3rd I didn't attend! Saw no need to. Thank God, I Am not so religious perhaps. Some trekked miles to Namugongo but from the backyard of my swamp, it didn't cross my mind to go Namugongo. These fellows were disrespectful to an African king. Now we call them matyres! Sorry if you are a weak hearted religious fellow! I am not! The day is just for shrewd good business!

Rape by another name! Phone taping and in Uganda.

As a citizen wrestles with a horrifying government, who will win? The government of Uganda wants to know what any one in Uganda discusses on phone, who they call, who beeps who, who in Uganda exchanges text messages with who and where, .... And for all this, the government is so understanding! It wants to do these under a legal frame work! Legalised phone tapping. Legalising raping the privacy and freedoms of its citizens and people in Uganda. So disgusting indeed and always will!

Reports 1 and 2 at the The Monitor website hinted on what type of government our government aspires to become! - a disgusting legalised Police State and a surveillance state according to me! Every Tom, Dick and Harry who makes a phone call or texts from and to another in Uganda shall be known. People in Uganda, Kony, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, Bush, and the entire world shall be eavesdropped as long as they make phone calls in and into Uganda! CHOGM 2007, country Code +256 is for tapping. And although it hasn't been said, the Internet might not be spared in this raping exercises.

True! The state might have reasons to eavesdrop in its territory, but nothing changes such a legalised disgust and a raping of individuals' privacy. Also true is that alot is communicated using the phone. Some rumour mongering, business discussion, political plots and deals, intimate and personal, name them, for terror, highly confidential at level one and many times as ordinary as just to say hi as characteristic of some calls I would rate. The state might already be tapping phone calls, but let them be accountable to an extent. Don't legalise it!

Who are the key victims: Privacy, and Businesses in the competitive knowledge age in Uganda.
The losers: The legal framework, parliament of Uganda, the government, and all other rapists!
My wish: I wish the bill to legalise tapping of phone calls in Uganda fails at the door steps of the parliament of Uganda!

From the blue corner, the citizen wins! Use the money for something else! We have enough to worry about already. Period

An urgent call to have information literate citizens - Part 1

I am perturbed by some erroneous information that could, in this case, effectively cripple Uganda's prestigious institution, Makerere University her challenges withstanding. What is true however is that Makerere University, Uganda and Africa need to adjust itself for the challenges of the Information age: Misinformations, and Disinformations.
We badly need information literate citizens so that we may not be swayed by issues found on the internet - this site not excluded!

Let me tackle this: Makerere University has been ranked # 54 in Africa by WeboMetrics and in the past weeks, Ugandan newspapers have not only rechoed the said ranking, but also screamed and agreed to an untrue position about Makerere University - declining and in relation to other African univerities and world Universities - 54th best in Africa and 6,429th in the world! But what does the rank mean?

Objectives of the Webometrics Ranking (WR)
Webometric indicators are provided to show the commitment of the institutions to Web publication. If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases in the volume and quality of their electronic publications.

The message is clear: Webometrics measured Makerere Univerity's commitment to web publication. Period. #54!? The lay information illiterate citizen could take it that Makerere University is not top in Africa for higher education. Webometrics robots might not know that Makerere University has two domain names asevidenced at URLs www.mak.ac.ug and www.makerere.ac.ug, that www.fcit.ac.ug, www.iph.ac.ug and www.idi.ac.ug which are different domains but true websites of faculties and institutes at Makerere University. The truth is that the rank #54 measured something different and not Makerere's quality of education.

The Ag. PRO of Makerere University highlighted some issuses though couldn't live upto the age.
Here are other issues and reasons why #54:

1. Makerere University has two domain names: .mak.ac.ug and .makerere.ac.ug. Which one was used to measure the web presence of MUK? Which is domain is official?
   
2. Makerere university is being represented by several unique domain names like: .fcit.ac. ug, idi.ac.ug, dicts.ac.ug, .iph.ac.ug, .... Were these taken into account as being part of Makerere University's web publishing sites?
   
3. Makerere University has no Webstrategy, no domain name policy or the domain name / website managment is poor if not both. Makerere University needs only one domain name.
   
4. Makerere University's academicia are publishing else where and not at the university's website as a matter of policy. We need that policy.
   
5. A bulk of Makerere University's publishing is still on hard copies and for donors! Improve on the e-publishing bit too!
   
6. ...
   

One thing for sure, Makerere Univerity is still shining academically but in need of proper institutional administration and ICT streamlining for a better web presence! Ugandans need not despair that the university is nose diving in its quality of education. It is a fact that Makerere University is undergoing management challenges! Where is MUBS for instance!? Where is Makerere University Business School in relation to Makerere University as an institution in the above arguements!

Diclaimer: Henry Owera is only an alumnai of Makerere Univerity, and not its Public Relations Officer.

Rwabuna! I heard and saw a white hen quacking at a reception area!

[Slight edits on May 29th 2007]
What has happened to the floppy diskette!? Thank you Rwabuna! We have got rid of it already. I haven't used a floppy in ages! That annoying 31/2" thing, infecting computers with virsuses, causing me to explain again and again what a computer virus is and that we don't need ngabo condoms to avert the consequences of recklessness in the information society!

A revolution began when Alpha Oscar and Hotel Oscar, who were very fresh from university (2003) were contracted to set up a resource centre and a bibliographic e-database for an NGO. Assignment well accomplished. While I soon took up a position as a programme assistant, Alpha Oscar continued job hunting else where.

Firstly I had to learn about our organisation and be prepared to respond to queries about the institution. Two weeks I was reading and consuming the new doctrine I have sincese mastered. But then I came accross phrases in our annual report that puzzled me and caused me to begin the thoughts towards upgrading our I.T systems: LANs, WANs and their annual budgetlines! And I didn't see a LAN nor a WAN! No I.T lord but me the fresher!

LANs! WANs! Not really! Not the one the comrade or any I.T aware fellow would say he knows or about cables, peers and servers, but something abit different. Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks, LANs and WANs were taken to mean the collaboration / engagement by our institution with other institutions both within Uganda and accross boarders!

Today - May 2007, the institution has a LAN and has forgotten about having its own WANs in the more strict sense. They network! No more budgets for LANs, WANs and floppies! Talk about streamlining I.T in the institution! No use for floppies now! Internet, Flash, ... and Skype are the talk!

Rwabuna! How could a professional be more grateful in this age! I couldn't believe it! I couldn't! I heard and saw a white hen quacking at a reception area! =))

Blogger or Journalist? A new vocation?

If you don't want to be touched by a monkey tail, don't join the monkeys dancing. I don't remember joining the monkeys dancing. That I used to hop from tree to tree should not tantamount to my being a monkey. I am not a monkey. I am not a journalist. I am a blogger. I blog. I run an online diary. Period. Could being a blogger be a new vocation?

Running an online diary shouldn't mean that I am a journalist! I quote my self: That I used to hop from tree to tree should not tantamount to my being a monkey. My be I mimic monkeys! May be I mimic journalism. That one writes should not construe to a fact that one is engaged in journalism! A writer is a writer and a journalist is a journalist. And a blogger is a blogger! It is true, we could be cousins. Let us not forget the webmasters and Listserv creators!

"It seems to me that if a blogger is a journalist, everyone can produce a blog and never be subject to a subpoena," McCorriston

The law is being manourved by the evolutions stirred by the internet. Even if it means bending, the law should adjust its self to suit new age. The law should never come in the way of human capacities! The way the world thought yesterday is not helpful to the realities of today's information age and communication revolution. Journalism, publishing, copy rights and related rights need to be readjusted too to match the times!

Here is an instance of some known journalists and students of online journalism who eventually become bloggers: I present Esther Nakazi's blog and Kimume Paul's blog. Blogging and journalism is different. Whereas journalism has a formular, blogging presents none ... as yet. Are (all) bloggers journalists? Should a blogger enjoy the privelegdes of journalist? Even then, should the journalist continue enjoying those archaic privileges? An interesting case at the First Ammendment Centre site by Associated Press is here

Excerpts:

Attorney William McCorriston, in a lawsuit brought by landowner James Pflueger over the failure of the Kaloko Dam, claims that Malia Zimmerman of Hawaiireporter.com is a blogger who isn't entitled to withhold her sources of information.

But Zimmerman, an editor and reporter for the Web site, says she is a legitimate journalist, not just some hack who offers half-baked commentary on the news of the day.

EASLIS+FCIT=$*!~!

EASLIS is an acronynm for the East African School of Library and Information Science, while FCIT is Faculty of Computing and Information Technology. Why shouldn't these faculties merge! Here is a slightly edited and blog version of my contribution to an online listserv discussion of "Information Professionals" in Uganda on the future of EASLIS at Makerere University.

A merger with FCIT would suffocate and eventually kill EASLIS. There is too much hype about everything ICTs as evidenced by FCIT'$ ambitiou$ li$t of cour$e$. Please no merger whatsoever between EASLIS and FCIT!

FCIT is for technology, e-data and with a gluttonous appetite for a hands-on-technologies! FCIT's prodcuts are yet to realise full potential in everyday Ugandan businesses! Let them wait and merge with Faculty for Engineering and Technology' particularily the Electrical / Electronic unit. We shall find them there. The hype surrounding the majority of FCIT courses should be allowed to rest here! I have also noted that FCIT graduates hate to handle information, are inadequate in professional information handling and communications and hate documents.

Many FCIT courses ideal to EASLIS professional can be found as international cerifications from Microsoft, Novel / Linux, Macromedia suite, Oracle, CompatiA+ and even CISCO. These are readily available and can be studied in other institutions anywhere not necesarrily at FCIT but even on self pace study! FCIT becomes a poor choice for a merger with EASLIS. EASLIS can do without.

My buy is a School of Information Science and Communication Studies, Makerere University.
Information Science covers up for the information technology shy Library Science. Here, therefore are the premises for which I support a merger with Mass Communication department! An EASLIS graduate will pretend to do what a Mass Communication graduate does and while a Mass Communication graduate assumes to perfom the tasks of an EASLIS professional! We are cousin disciplines to an extent. A merger is ideal.We are processing, producing and communicating products using information technologies primarily for human consumption. I dare add, we would be the ideal synergy of professionals in guiding the nation in the the Information age and the communication revolution. We would complete the Information Literacy training together!

Having studied BLIS at EASLIS (2000-2003), got confused in the midst of the Information era and blundered by studying CCNA at the then Institute of Computer Studies, toyed with the idea of a Msc. Information Systems at FCIT, I finally came to agree that surely Msc. Information Science is better that anything in FCIT for among reasons, its long term strategic skills and its similarities to Mass Communication, Public Relations, and journalism or technical wrting as EASLIS puts it.

EASLIS (/ Mass Communication merger) can however collaborate with FCIT in the areas of Informatics, systems analysis and designs so as to give a meaningful application of Information Technologies for development.

Mayflies! Here is an opportunity for you!

The sun may be great but of recent, the same sun that sets in the West, chose to set at noon. I must give note: These are trying moments for a citizen of the age in Uganda. Two notable gallant sons of Uganda have died and were buried in a space of a week! RIP Hon. Eng. Dr. Okullo Epak. RIP PS Brigadier General Noble Rwaboni Mayombo.

But then there was the Labour day! May the first. I must make quality gains for my services. I chose to observe the last Labour day by setting some terms!

• Do things myself!? Always and should! Yes! Because I can and can learn!
• Available for Non Profit jobs? Yes! Every thing to do with NGOs, Programmes, Projects, Information, Communication, Information Technology, PR, knowledge Management and of recent M&E. Ask for my CV.
  
• Private Professional Consultancy? Yes! Here are some terms:

What - Information and Communication, PR, Systems, and research.
When - Then, Now, whenever and forever.
Where - Uganda, Southern Sudan, and East African region for 2007-2008
Yes!? Okay! Email me!

• Jobs without pay! Maybe! I am a professional! Pay me for my professional services.
  
• Voluntary position? I will always weigh!
  
• Job without Terms of Services nor defined Terms of Reference! Never! Did You hear me scream!? No!? Ok! NEVEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ... Did you hear me! Oh Thank you! I fell shouldn't retard my professional development ever!
  
• Period

PICTURE Africa! Ugandan Bloggers and the Danish Factor

PICTURE Africa
PICTURE Africa is an acronym for Poverty and Information and Communication Technology in Urban and Rural East Africa. PICTURE Africa is a three year study in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It is being funded by the IDRC. On Monday the 23rd April 2007, I met Kathleen Diga, from the International Development Research Centre IDRC. Katheen is the person behind the blog Picture Africa. Discussions were centred on issues regarding a communication strategy for the PICTURE Africa Project. We, later attended a joint meeting of teams from PICTURE Africa Project and Research ICT Africa (RIA) before finalising with PICTURE Africa Country team members. True! A Communication strategy has to be developed and implemented! Some pictorials at her post.

Ugandan bloggers
On Sunday, I had the chance to meet some faces behind the Ugandan blogsphere and the Danish students doing a documentary on Ugandan bloggers. Thanks to Dennis Matanda of the Call for the African Recolonisation fame.
Dennis was the idea behind the romantic atmosphere at Joglo, paid all the swine meat bills and accompanyment! A big thank you Dennis! Bloggers! Hips don't lie! Ugandan bloggers, FDC and UPC bloggers inclusive - I don't see the NRM bloggers!, love their bottle, love to flirt, have fun, chat, smoke and locate the g' spot! A blogger is about to fix or marry another in Uganda! A Ugandan tribe is being developed! Ugandan bloggers shall be a force to reckon with!

I left early. I had to! I had to babies sit! And now I say bye bye to the Danes. Come back again! The documentary! Thank you Ugandan bloggers who were there: S.A.G.E , Country boyi, I have left Copenhagen for Uganda! Feed me, love me, never leave me Carlo All sweetening hats who came Rumbling and Rubbish, you should also meet this Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean Dennis Matanda!

Borrowed Civilisations

ICT is the way to go! ICT!? Yes ICT. Information and Communication Technologies or Information Communications Technology aka Information Technology. ICT, the cousin to Informatics, Information Systems, Information Science, Information Engineering, Computer Science, and all the hype around it! However, ICTs are foreign to the bulk that make African cultures. True! Africa must not only adopt, absorb, concot phrases to refer to ICTs and related concepts but also be prepared to embrace and use ICTs in everyday businesses and activities.

Absorbing a foreign technology is like borrowing a leaf from a foreign civilisation! It can not be easy.This is the context I dwell in. The Information Age version of Uganda, Southern Sudan and indeed Africa. I therefore feel the following skills are badly needed in order for Africa to benefit from this borrowed civilisation called ICT: Information Literacy and then Computer /ICT literacy. I conquer with the following definitions from the National Forum on Information Literacy:

"Information Literacy is the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. "

Information Literacy is primarily my training in Library and Information Science.

"Computer Literacy: The ability to use a computer and its software to accomplish practical tasks."

Computer Literacy is a vital component of my primary training. I use computers to accomplish my information literacy tasks. To me, this is Informatics! Informatics is achieving an Information service task using a computer.

Were I to combine my Informatics with some training in an information domain such as the health domain to accomplish a health service task, then I would be into Health Informatics!

I wish somebody could throw some light on these borrowed civilisations called ICTs, Informatics and Information Sciences!

Confused in the Information Age

Two things can never be the same! Information Science and Informatics can not be the same! The avalanche of information and terminologies in the Information Society, Information Age and related academic university offerings could have created a mist in understanding the development of the age! What is what!?

I, be but one information professional, feel that Information Science and Informatics is one such mist! I sought some answers from a colleague a colleague, fellow collegian and professional and a friend working as the Librarian at the Institute of Infectious Disease. What is the difference between Informatics and Information Science? Can the task of all librarians at a Medical instute be termed Health Informatics?

From the Wiki Answers, I begged for an answer! I paused a question to the WikiAnswer thus: What is the difference between Information Sciences and Informatics!

Please Answer this question by clicking the New Wiki Question generated! Anselm thanks for your in put!