Ba Kampala Ugandan bloggers and ICT faithfuls

One should attend this ba Kampala nakani fellowship swallowship, See them there. I need the T-shirt! Free advertising on a poor souls' chests and back! ... Anyway, it should be noted in our calendars that ...

Campala 2008 will be held in Kampala, Uganda on 08/29/2008 as a way to bring people interested in a variety of levels and topics, together in one place for a day of exploration, connection and enjoyment.

BarCamp is an international network of conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.'

You will be seen you when you see us.

Tribute to Dr. John Garang De Mabior

Lt. Gen. Dr. John Garang De Mabior (RIP)

Democracy is bad for national unity

To hell with democracy. Africa should look out for effective leadership and not not merely pretend to democratization. Leadership need not necessarily be popular and nor pro west and against East. The end justifies the means! Leadership should lead to a destination just and right even if 99% disagree. Where is the leadership we've lost in democracy?

My colleague and school rival turned friend Wanyama dug insightfully. Wanyama inscribes that Governments of national unity are bad for democracy. Salam Taki agrees. Similar sentiment here, here and shall disagree with him and perhaps also disagree with those who glorify democracy. Henry Owera asserts that democracy is bad for national unity and world stability.

While commenting on the emerging trends of coalition governments in Kenya, and now Zimbabwe, one wouldn't agree any less with the political Ugandan blogger Wanyama:

... Curiously, it is the West fronting this mode of election dispute resolution in Africa. It should be rejected totally.
... On the surface, this looks a juicy deal; but deep down it is a total travesty to justice and democracy.
... looking at this new fashion ... it is obvious that Africa is slowly murdering the purpose of elections.

There should be no middle line between democracy and totalitarianism. Call it the West but specifically these are imperialists who stand to gain from projecting their hegemonies! Rejection is the not enough. Abandon the entire project.Lets abandon democracy as it is defined by certain powers. Democracy has become bad for national unity.

Democracy has become an illusion and it kills prospect of good intentioned independent leadership in Africa. Democracy is about popularity and the especially a yes node from the West. It is not about quality of representation. Democratization in Africa has become the new litmus test for whether an African leadership agree with imperialists and there by ignores the need for effective leadership for Africa by Africans or not!

Democratization in Africa is creating puppet leaderships of African leaders. A leader is only democratic because the West says so.

Real pictures: The MIG-29 tactical fighters into Sudan

July 20, 2008 (WASHINGTON) Here are the real MIG-29 tactical fighters into Sudan recently shipped into Sudan as it was witnessed by the reputable Wasil Ali. Wasil Ali and Sudan Tribune.com are attempting to draw cheap popularity to their nonentity using sensual misinformation. Notice Wasil Ali's "nonentitiness". Wasil Ali MIG-29 in pictures: Misinformation packaged to look like facts.

Starting with groups of a half dozen which then unite to form a group of 20 to 30 and so on until the flock is quite large and noisy. It is their habit to return to the same place each night.
Source: An excerpt from Wikipedia about Scarecrows

Wasil Ali is engaging in an act of misinformation. Only the very gullible of gullible would think Wasil Ali is an entity and a top investigative journalist from Washington DC who chooses to publish sensitive news in the Sudan Tribune that Field Marshal Omar Bashir can import the said dozen MiG 29 even under the current world lime light the fellow finds himself in.

One may think Omar Bashir and his henchmen are intelligent enough to know whatever happened to the Saddam Hussein's in Iraq. It is an opinion that a Field Marshall what so ever will not want to entangle himself the more by attacking Darfur nor South Sudan using any more at the moment and that Wasil Ali could be yet another agent: a scarecrow.

ICC, Africa, UNO and Omar Bashir

If one cried out Allah would all understand? Lord! God! No human rights activist, Darfurian, South Sudanese, Ugandan and many think the person Omar Bashir shouldn't be indicted. The ICC's indictment of Sudan's President Omar Bashir, a sitting President in Africa is is not being supported but is being questioned and the ICC had better emerge with a better bill of health. This post takes a stance as if to plead for a certain bushir so here is a thought about governance, the ICC and world order and using the Sudan conflict, and a sitting President Omar Bashir case subject.

The people in Darfur, South Sudan, and Sudan have bore a wrath and among needs, need justice to be done. The ICC indictment of a sitting president to bring about justice unfortunately presents an awkward situation. Unfortunately one should not put ends to fires by setting fires nor oxygenating fires. One should not wound, red flag and corner a beast. Certain tact is needed to bring about security and peace in Sudan but the arrest and court hearing with an assured verdict doesn't seem ideal. The tact is ideal but a safeguard is that ICC had better act for itself and toe a proper path.

Bird of the same feathers: As if to side with Bashir wholly, some African and world leaders are skeptical of this indictment however criminal the president should be. To play it safe and diplomatically: The UNO and other international bodies are also against the indictment of a president of a UNO member country and in a world conflict hotbed. Regime change and undermining certain hemisphere leadership: Some mentality will seek to undermine some leadership. To end the regime and revenge: The victims and rivals should have stabbed the sky to the indictment. The rest: led by the media of their reach and choice. The ICC intention draws upon itself a scrutinizing and it better emerge with a better bill of health.

The ICC is attempting or could be experimenting and also setting a precedent for possible blueprint indictment against certain leaderships. The ICC seems also set to exercise its balls against some select leaderships / governments and nationals: - African, Middle Eastern (Minus Israel of course), East European countries (former Soviet blocks), some Orientals, and perhaps middle and South American leaderships. The ICC could be setting itself another role in international affairs. Changing some and courting other leaderships. One therefore does not see the same ICC pointing even a toe against a West European, North American, Russian and Chinese leaderships and nationals be it today nor in the furthest future. With all international organs in the North, the ICC had better not be a tentacle of any emerging world reordering!

It is needless restating the pity that the said bedeviled also happens to be one of the few privileged human beings, and a sitting president of one of the UN member countries. He is bitterly a sitting PRESIDENT and indicting him is not only setting precedents for indicting many other leaders but could be red flagging a beast. And in an opinion, such were the mistakes in the ICC's indictment against the sitting president of Sudan and awkward position and suspicions about the ICC.

Let management realise the new lords

In South Sudan's GoSS salary structure, IT pretender professionals earn about US$ 400 per month, support entire enterprises and a government might not be bothered. How much are these marketable pretenders services worth within a government salary structure so that they may stay put and not rush away to NGOs to earn better pay?

No one will condone the to be mentioned but how much are ICT experts worth? Let see how much: Denial of service access in a network. In a nutshell, that less.

A disgruntled city computer engineer has commandeered a new multi million-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail.

Back to Africa: Multi million dollar information systems are being developed in South Sudan, Uganda and in Sub Saharan Africa. How much can a sub nation risk with information systems? But who are the experts [Read: ggooddss] behind the ICT based systems? Answer: Foreign consultants whose backgrounds are not even know but entire government business information and communication systems rest at their disposals.

What is more valuable than money in a banking system? How can one win a war without firing a single shot? The answer to these can be found in Data, information and communication. And this answers how much ICT specialists are worth. They are their own bosses many times.

The telecommunications farce in South Sudan

One can not talk of any benefit nor be it monetary that should accrue when six multi million dollar worth telecommunication companies operate in South Sudan. South Sudan's telecommunication industry is being exploited with an impunity unmatched any where in worlds known.

The key players in South Sudan's telecommunication industry are GoSS' Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Sudan's telecommunication's industry regulator, the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), Zain Sudan (Mobitel) , Sudatel, and MTN Sudan which are Khartoum licensed and are also allowed to operate in the South without remitting even a piesta (Read: Cent) to the South (Read: GoSS). Gemtel, and Network of the World (NOW) South Sudan based telecommunication companies not allowed to operate in Khartoum government controlled areas and which companies seem to luck business acumen befitting the worlds most paying industry.

The government in South Sudan can not lay claims that these telecommunication companies' license fees have benefited its government. This is because there is a chaos of an industry in South Sudan that one can justly say the South failed to address pro actively and whose attempted reactive response has been hampered by inadequate skills and outdated human resource to regulate, monitor and at least relicense the industry. The passive effect of the transition period is also to blame for the slow efforts to bring about the needed millions of dollars to South Sudan's confers!

An urgency in South Sudan's telecommunication industry should not be mentioned again but all the Khartoum licensed operators are also trading in the obvious privacy of persons in the South who use their inevitable services or should we call it disservice as US$ 2.5 is levied per client having to register personal details.

Among the many battle fronts of the Sudan, one may as well say South Sudan has lost miserably the economic and e-warfare capacities in telecommunication. The telecommunication companies are enjoying themselves and at the expense of the socio-economic realities in the Sudan and even seem to be agents of the powers that be to a detriment.