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

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.

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!

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?

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!

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! =))

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

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!

Back in Kampala and a New dad!

After adventuring in Juba, Southern Sudan, I have happily returned to Kampala, Uganda. I travelled to Juba on the 2nd of Febrauary 2007 and returned on the 1st of March 2007. Happy New Year! Alot has also happened!

Guns! Brisk business! Constructions! Tents! Want for water and rest rooms! Dollars and Pounds! No thieves. Cruel! Yes! and too hot then! Thieves!? No! Juba is safe! The militant Southern Sudan has created a situation I would call "a balance of terror" and created numerous opportunities for minting money! It is a gold mine! But there is the gun! It is as if everybody in Juba knows the gun! Everyone can terrorise each other! Thugs are evils of our modern time! Every is busy! No room for leisure! Very expensive a place! Very low standard of living! Everything is makeshift!

It seems Southern Sudan is in another solar system in development! Juba and indeed Southern Sudan needs a sustainable development master plan to convert the large village called Juba to a city and bring development to the wilderness called Southern Sudan! More on Juba another time! One message! See Juba for your self to believe! Dare for the truth!

Back in Kampala! I returned to Kampala on the 1st of March 2007 well aware I was about to become a father! Well on March 20th 2007 I became a father of two little girls! Pics!? Soon! Names!? Wait!

I have to be grateful to Alpha Bravo, Alpha Mike, Delta Mike, ... and co! Thank you! Alpha Kilo, Hotel Oscar Oscar, ... you are friends indeed!

Yes I have returned and looking forward to returning to the Sudan some day. Behold! I am a father! There is a place called Juba!
Little Sis! Esther! In Algeria! I must blog it that you, the last born, are an Auntie to Colette and Claudia Bakita Owera!

Juba!!

Been offline! Had travelled into the jungle of a city called Juba in the den and centre of conflict - Southern Sudan! Internet is cruelly expensive perhaps most expensive in the world and is the hottest reeking capital city nearing 40'C at times! lots of opportunities but the most expensive place to be and you can get stranded with dollars in your chest. I Will update when I can

My apologies!!

My April 27th 2005 road accident

On a fateful Wednesday, the 27th April 2005, as I was heading for duty, I stared death in the eyes and it winked at me and I at it! I got involved in a nasty road motor accident and was hospitalised at Mulago Hospital Kampala for a week. This in part explains why I had nearly neglected updating this blog. I wasn't driving nor riding but it did happened. Am Shakur. Shakur is Arabic for: Grateful to God.

Death winked at me! and I at it!
I was rushing for an assignment and chose to ride on a commercial motorcycle - in Uganda they are called boda bodas. My Chauffeur and I, on that fateful day hit a Carib Toyota that suddenly strayed onto our path - it strayed a mere 10 - 15 meters and yet the apparent speed was 50 KPH plus. We were on the main but the Carib that was oncoming chose to turn right into us. In Uganda motorist keep left. We had right of way. But I would dare say the driver of the Carib was disrespectful of other road users - us. And so a wink.

My chauffeur couldn't avoid the collision but luckily it wasn't a head on collision. I say death winked at me. I could see the accident approaching and instinctively, I organised a diving stunt over the Carib at the incident of our motorcycle hitting the Carib. It was well hatched instinctive plan - in my opinion and it was the best. Am 6 1' and 102 kg (about 220 pounds) and athletic so a diving spree over a motor vehicle and rolling on a hard surface tarmac was was the better option to colliding with the vehicle its self - so I wished but my fate was already sealed. I would put our speed at about 40KPH and for the vehicle at about 15 KPH so the effectiveness of my preparations were determined by a hell approaching at an apparent speed of over 50 K pH. Red.

The collision
What would one expect!? - The collision was RED! That would be my honest assessment of the ordeal. I don't remember how it happened and other details. But it happened. But one thing for sure, I hit the Carib and there was blood. Not all causes of death is painful! But I was able to predict my near death in my previous posting and a 2Pac Shakur poem: In the Event of my demise.

I am indebted to those flattering good samaritans who helped a stranger to be able to update this blog. I will try to be good to others so help me oh you the Omnipotent one. Am Shakur! And NOT Tupac Amaru Shakur aka Makaveli! Am only being grateful to him who is above.

Back in kampala, Uganda

My trip to Maridi came to an end. My leave ended and i have to resume. I must admit I was as anxious to return to Kampala as I was anxiuos to head to NS. Either way it was sweet. Its like heading for news and actually telling the news!
Well I returned to Kampala safely and to the very arms of a you - can - quess - who. Yes she met me before I could begin watching the legs of Kampalans. I love you Kin.
I returned and kept my head cool, resumed some work and caught up and visited a near name shake and a friend - one Henry Owora a computer administrator at Ntinda, Kampala. And there was this challenger - the bigger dreamer of them all - Slyvia. I listened to this lady donning an Arsenal Cap and was like kalaas! this world and moreso Uganda still has chances of toppling Oprah. Well Slyvia has concieved a mega plan of providing Ugandans with some literatures. I won't name the title or hint on its contents but if all goes well, Ugandans will be reading unique literature published by a civil engineer! - Should we call this miseducation or the so much cherised versatility!? Come May, Slyvia am waiting for my free copies of the Fame Magazine!

I will remember to owerahbit my experiences in the Sudan but now that Jesus is about to die and resurrect, I have to revise my dreams. I need a HUMVEE. The real HUMMER H3. Visit the official HUMMER website by clicking here. A golf is not worth it! Revise ya dreams and match us!

Maridi - oh beautiful Maridi

Maridi! I know i will love love Maridi -The Maridi of New Sudan. Maridi And am seriously considering naming one of my daughters (to be) - Maridi. Any objections are entertained but not welcome. Have a look at who her nameshake would be. Kin you have a say though.
I didn't make it to Maridi Town but I pray it make one day. Have a look somebody is every inch Maridi! Do a Google Image Search for Maridi Thompson. She is the bomb!

In Yei, Southern Sudan - New Sudan

The coils begin to unfold
I am finally in Yei, Southern Sudan. Yei for long had been the stronghold of the SPLA forces of John Garang fighting the Arab Government in Northern Sudan. Sudan means the land of black people in Arabic - ask any Arab! Its the Biblical Cush. I think even Egypt not the one demarcated by colonialist - is also in Sudan! So the great pyramids should have been built by the Cushites or the Sudanese for that matter. Some pyramids are found in the Sudan!

After 20 years am begining to trace our family history. I hope to owerahbit it here some day.

In reaching Yei, I passed through former valleys of death - spots of instensive battles between the SPLA and the North Sudan governments forces, the LRA clashes and the Juma Oris battle field. I could still see bits of uniforms of fallen "enemy" forces - white clothes here and there and all over and the sole SPLA tank that got destroyed when Kaya and Yei got captured - That tank is in the bushes but I thinks its worth thousand of dollars. That tank lies with it all the symbolism of heroism. I wish I could keep that tank for its reeks of courage, of a war that was won because the 'rebels' were simply RIGHT! While I was there, the LRA rebels again attacked some villages in the Sudan. The same group caused havoc in Northern Uganda about the same week.
Yei: Every Southern Sudanese must have ever been to Yei!
From New Sudan Kaya - most children there trek to Kaya Uganda side every morning for primary Education, to Bazi - MTN Uganda and Celtel Uganda Networks can be accessed at a apoint of a lone tall timber - to Morobo where a Mango tree less than a stone throw away is a meaningless border check point in Congo -meaningless I suppose because they guards surely drink their waters in the Sudan, eat in Sudan and possibly their commander sleeps in the Sudan!) There is no resisting Yei. All roads seems to yield towards Yei. Its the heart of developing New Sudan. Yei this time is much cooler than I had been caused to anticipate. The nights were chilling. The rains began on our arrival and its likely to remain rainy and intensify in September to December. In the whole of Uganda where I lived, I have never seen a place so green, ok the streets so littered with Mango trees like I have witnessed in Yei. One literally passes through a canopy of Mango tree branches from all corners. These tress provide shelter to population of Yei and ofcourse food. I was told of a Dinka who claimed that he eats about 80 Mangoes a day during the mango season (which will resume in March-April). The lands are so fertile and well the Tig trees which provide quality timber to Europe is plenty less as plantations but more as wild. The roads are being upgraded and hopefully tarmaced. Environmetalists, politicians, historians and the heros of NS should consider protecting the Mango trees along the mainstreets of Yei. Yei is one but the beauty of the Sudan must be protected. I don't know the decision they will take about these canopies but the demarcation on the roads seem to direct the caterpillars and graders to fell them all! Hear this: Some mature Mango trees have never been eaten from - by human beings atleast. I dare say more than 50% of the manages are being wasted annually.
The Cost of being
Mangoes are literally free (when the seasons come) unless you can't pick a fresh one from the trees on the compound you live! Accommodation is 10,000 Uganda Shs per night - about Us$ 4 in a cottage ofcourse. A bottle of Soda 300ml costs 1,000 UgShs. And the beers is annoyingly cheaper at 1300 Ug. Shs. A Kilo of beans and that of Meat is 1,000 Ugx! How can meat rival beans - eh sorry I meant the vice versa. Well the people are just learning to eat beans! Meat is in plenty and milk is a reserve for the Dinkas who keep cattle! Well its their livelihood besides blood! Internet time cost per minute is annoying! In Yei, Its affordable and avoidable and vice versa.
The Kololoing of Maridi
Kololo is Acholi for alone. When Rwot Awich of the Acholi land was captured by the British colonialist In British protectorate Of Uganda for opposing colonialism, he was imprisoned one one of Kampala hills in Buganda Kingdom. The British allowed some of his chiefs to visit him and when he was asked how he was he replied sadly and bitterly thus: at kololo. Literally meaning am lonely! Today the hill has been named Kololo. This hill has become the residence hill of the greats in Kampala. It has for long been the place to live in Kampala. And what about the possibility of Kololoing in the Sudan, in Maridi!
In a short while I will be deeper in the Sudan at the very bossom of beautiful Maridi (So I thought!) I didn't reach Maridi! (Sob! sob!). I must make it to Maridi the next time I travel to NS. I would wish to return here ASAP! The opportunities are there and I wish I could work and live here. The hard bits is that road transport is unreliable. The commonest means of transport is whats nicknamed "Sahara" which in Arabic means the wizard! Other means are available but not at ones' convinience and timetable! Ok there is air transport to all the major counties in NS but abit expensive (by my standards). But nothing can hinder the plot so well concieved by a great son of the land and also my host. I am lucky to be in the comfort of a 4x4 Surf thanks to him who among other answers who is a Musician, Composer, Poet and a Quitarist: - Africano. (Thanks akillion. I wish I could play your song the way you do!). I will be in Maridi one day!
The worry
The destruction of Yei street Mangos burns in me.
There is alot to be done in the NS! Internet time here is 200Ugshs per min In Uganda its 20shs per min! Cya.