Happy 2011 - The year of South Sudan

In 2011, the Year of South Sudan, the geo-political heart of Africa, you should welcome the 54th State of Africa - The Republic of South Sudan (Or Azania). It is a normalcy bias: Uganda's 2011 national elections and South Sudan's 2011 self determination referendum 2011.

Greetings from now in South Sudan: With a referendum slated for early January 9, 2011, the Khartoum government will roar, and throw tantrums and some bombs, create chaos here and there, but a full blown out war is not desirable to even the most fool hardy fanatic in that regime. An assurance is that the peripheries of Sudan - South Sudan, Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, the Eastern Bank and all opposition to the current Khartoum regime could all gang up against the centre. The international economic community will also not tolerate the war. Times are hard. Khartoum will not want to provoke furies.

South Sudan's rear guard: Uganda. In national elections. Conditions obtainable in the field will not favour a regime change, the leadership and presidency of Uganda for the timing. Add it that Uganda's democracy is still nascent. There, it is is a "demoNcracy". If need be, a win for the incumbent will be "democracKed".

He shall win because he is Museveni, the man, the politician, the strategist, the in-charge of Uganda's state machinery, regional linchpin, East Africa's longest serving president, and thoroughly entrenched in the socio-economic politic military fabrics of Uganda, tested and proven executive of a geo-strategically located international operations base.

Given Somalia, the Nile Basin, and South Sudan's potent crisis, Museveni's involvement and with the "international community" in Sub-Saharan Africa and the fact that Museveni is a note able continental voice and therefore one of the continent's strategists, he remains very relevant to the local, regional, international and politico-military interventions in Sub Sharan Africa.

To pull extra ordinary electioneering victory in Uganda, where Sudan had a chance in Dr. John Garang, only appeals that transcend party affiliations like politics, religion, and tribalism must be translated into into economic and fair competitiveness national campaign strategies in order to change leadership in Uganda. Museveni will therefore win because the opposition lack the acumen to pull off an extraordinary victory. Atleast it seems to be the case in their current campaigns. It is a fashion show for alternative opposition leaders - Norbert Mao and Ms Betty Kamya.

Current so called electioneering and democracy in Uganda is what I will call "DEMONCRACY". If need be, M7 will "democrack" a win. For all the ills that could follow, here is good news: the international community can not allow an Ivory Coast nor a Kenya situation in Uganda. Not in the year 2011 - the Year of South Sudan, the geo-political heart of Africa.

With other people's opinions very alarmist, and pessimist we should take the due caution: Also, brace for uncertainty. Take care. It is only Eight (08) days to South Sudan's referendum. Her independence can only be declared on or after 9 July 2011. I wish you a Happy New Year.

Nsaba pornography at Salsa nights

As a bill outlawing pornography in Uganda is about to be tabled in parliament, one is of the view that pornography should not be outlawed. If the penalty of promoting and dealing in pornography will be ten years in jail, then a certain brand manager of pornography is making pornography business the more lucrative in Uganda. Talk about anything pornography in Uganda , the brand manager might be Hon. Nsaba Butoro. Doing more harm than good. The higher the risk the better the pay!

A Salsa night can complicate things. Imagine this: Nairobi, Kenya. Winter. Freezing. Studious. Telecomplications. Loneliness. An East African student approaches: Hi, Come. We have Salsa classes every other day. Lets go. It is fun! - Remember it was cold and lonely. I needed to exercise, make new friends with the city Nairobi, keep warm, break the monotony of the time and because it was Salsa and a Subaru who could resist this Salsa flirt and a Tinga Tinga ting? ... Come Salsa.

Hon. Butoro and his prominence with every thing pornographic in Uganda might want to come to the national theatre for Salsa nights. While at the show, perhaps the honourable Minister of Ethics and Integrity might want to define what pornography is! A horrible, seemingly obsessed with pornography, might read many Strictly Come Salsa and other art to be pornography and who knows, many could be innocently jailed.

In an act of e-citizenship, one may ask:

1. What is Hon. Nsaba Butoro's definition of pornography?
2. When should pornography become criminal?
3. And truly blogging, isn't the bill just a comical relief for the owls in the house?
4. Is pornography a major issue for a ministry of ethics and integrity?
5. Hasn't Hon. Nsaba Butoro marketed Uganda's profitability in pornography?
6. Would anybody want to guess which minister [Nsaba Butoro] will display a pornographic material to the parliament of Uganda?
   

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.

Ministry of ICT Uganda Website

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Uganda came into effect in the year 2006 BC. Two years down the lane, nothing positive and concrete can be credited to the ministry which is trying to find its standing among giants namely the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Uganda Broadcasting Council, among others which were the erstwhile performing role that the ideal Minstry of ICT should be known for. Castigating the ministry in such light is not the purpose of the post though.

Here is the issue: From 2006 and today is 2008, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT) in Uganda hasn't a web presence to boast of. Well one may claim that the ministry is still being setup, that the bureaucracies in civil governments could be taking its toll on the full of pace ministry, and many lamenesses for excuses. But look, the said ministry asked for not so little money and only used less than 20% of what it requested for. And with about US$ 800, 000, 0000 unspent, one is also unable to find a mere website for the ministry. Lets quote an allafrica.com article posted to the web 22 April 2008 and authored by one Mary Karugaba: Uganda: ICT Ministry fails to utilise Sh. 5bn

The ministry has generally under-performed. It raises question on underutilisation of resources and under staffing in the sector. [ICT] Committee Chairman, [Parliament of Uganda] [Hon.] Edward Baliddawa.

The MPs also demanded to know why the ministry had not recruited workers given that the Cabinet had approved the staffing structure in 2007.

Grace Tubwita (NRM) and Baliddawa also demanded to know who would take responsibility for the unspent funds.

Hon. Edward Baliddawa is one of the ICT champions ever in the Uganda august house. The other being Johnson Nkuuhe. Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT) notable key staff are Dr. Ham Mulira, the Minister; Mr. Alintuma Nsambu, the State Minister and Mr. Albert Mugumya, the Undersecretary. ICTs should go beyond the hype and cash. The ministry needs to put its act right, give a website and it is service deserving of the establishment. For all the woes, Salam Taki continues to enjoy due internet traffic if not but the Salam Taki article with key words ICT, Information and Communication Technology, Minstry, Minster, Uganda. The URL of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Uganda is http: www.ict.go.ug

The song ICT4D is abstract and obstructive

Real demand for ICT should not depend on massive advertisement on the part of telecommunication companies but more from investments in education and capacity building as more people may begin utilising ICTs, and ICT Ministries. And oh yes, may also think about the need for national ICT policies, and strategies, define the roles of the public, and private sectors, and civil societies in regards the revolution ICT is causing. Only then can ICT become nutritious for holistic development in Uganda, South Sudan, and Africa. A phrase has been edited to suit Salam Taki.

The title of the blog article was inspired by an article published in the The Monitor website and authored by one Mr. Aramanzan Madanda. Read his article published on the 16th May 2008 entitled ICT hype is a joke. A phrase in that article was the subject for the fore mentioned edit. The motivation for writing this article comes after reading a counter argument article in the same media by a one student of Msc. Information Technology for Management, Conventry University, a Mr. Ivan Kahangire's article. And there was this urge to weigh claims with a Salam Taki article alleging ICT for development is hocus pocus. Treachery of the highest order ...' published published Monday, March 31, 2008 under a title Rocking the Boat.

Mr. Aramanzan Madanda has read widely and knew his trade. Had the chance to listen to him and will say, was he just being at times in the same lambda with Salam Taki? ICT4D song is really pathetic. Like a wild beast tearing through a forest, here and there left up right down. It is like singing a song one doesn't understand but should love all the same and all the time and yet sings it so loudly. It is ICT. While the soon-to-be permanently head damaged PHD holder was discussing competition among telecommunication companies in Uganda and was irked as to why these corporations were obsessed with identifying with star musicians, he soon fell into singing the auld usually sung loud song dna banjuka tu ict njakunoba i4ict song. It is also broken here that ICT4D was crap.

ICT on their own are merely gadgets, an industry and less worth to bring about solutions and the development being sought. Thus the mantra, a hocus pocus, ICT4D is deemed crap. However, when ICT is systematically integrated with sciences, people, and domains like health, education, medicine, etc, ICTs will be seen to cause much cherished holistic developments and solutions and at that point we should no longer hype ICTs are causing the development but a system causing development. Such should be the light in which ICTs contribute to development.

ICT hype is a joke didn't go well with Ivan and so our Msc. IT for Management fellow was drawn in and he drew the dagger: ICT is a key tool for development. Lets understand it this way: Like dancing to a tune so compelling that one just has to go a dance school just to learn how to dance it best. One books a break off to display what one has learnt so far if anywhere but on the big platform open to a critiquing. Salam Taki don't head that way. We shan't. So lets instead welcome and salute the learning process. Ivan, Kije, ay, horro, ay, agandi, ndimarungi. Welcome bro. Lets critique.

Ivan, ICT4D is a ride. We are yet to come to terms with its nitty gritties. Salam Taki hopes that ICT4D shall eventually become ICT in development. It is like Space conceiving beautiful kittens we may label informatics or e -*, where, "*" could be domains such as commerce, health, banking, citizenship, education, governance, journalism, name it but all components in a development. Oh shall we?

Note
Space is the name of a cat of a blogger, the 24th Comrade . Space recently gave birth to three beautiful kittens. The phrase Space was therefore used figuratively to illustrate the relationship as in the cat giving forth kittens. ICT, for instance (and health) brings about e-health or health Informatics.

Henry Owera is a blogger whose blogging exercises are Information Society, ICT, informatics, mass media, new media, social media, information economy, e-citizenship, e-governance, policies, and strategies. He blogs on Uganda, Southern Sudan and Africa.
Blogging at URL http://www.owerahbits.blogspot.com/
Email: owerah@gmail.com Skype: owerah14

Women's Day!

A general will baby sit your world. You will keep a nation busy and focused. That picture will say it better! All eyes on you

This picture from the New Vision could go along way into becoming the picture of the year in Uganda - thanks to Women's Day when I could not post a thing, another fellow saw it through the lens of his camera!

A General, a president, the commander in chief of the Uganda People's Defence Force, H. E Yoweri Museveni baby sitting. A hand shake with a prime minister. A large audience watching! A young mother smiling. Women's Day!

President Yoweri Museveni found himself doing some babysitting as Golden Girl Dorcus Inzikuru greeted Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi at the Women’s Day celebrations at Kololo on Saturday. The former world champion and reigning Commonwealth Games 3000m steeplechase queen gave birth to Emmanuella Munguci on December 27 and hopes to be back in time for the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Kenyan darkness and Uganda, Congo, Somalia, Southern Sudan, ...

The chaos in Kenya spells everything that Easte Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi) and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan, Somalia all but to name afew are being engulfed in a maze of uncertainities come the historic year 2011!

It is 2008. Happy New Year. It is a new year to some and merely different way of calendaring to some of us. In four years, lets compute: Year 2008+4years=Year2011. Yes the bench mark is four years. 2011. In the four years to come, alot of uncertainities could be experienced in the mentioned region. The four years will witness the political heating up of atmospheres in the region. Whereas the Southern Sudan is drawing near the d - day of the conclusion of the historic 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Naivasha Kenya, Ugandan will be readying to vote come the year 2011. Change or No Change, the Kenyans are already doing mischief which could be a bad influence on the politics in the region. We have heard the piss from a volcano which is about to erupt ...

Kenya was instrumental in the signing of the Sudanese CPA, the same Kenya is central to business transcations in the same region and all countries mention before, poor Kenya is a boarder to hectic Somalia. Let us not forget what happened to Rwanda in 1994 and what is befalling the Central African Republic and the DRC at this moment! The LRA are also around the corner - in Southern Sudan and in the DRC and will they love the peace?
The next four year are critical to the political stablility in the regions. So help us God ... the Kenyans are setting bad preincidents

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!

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?

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?

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?

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

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!

!?! ?$M7@? I hope you understand!

African leadership is a puzzle! Understanding the ways of African leadership is like trying to analyse the chess moves of the great Gary Kasparov! Gary is alone in his world! You might not be good enough to understand what he does! But see! He is the world's undisputable Super Chess master! Museveni could be the equivalent in the political development in Uganda! He will win! The grandmaster rarely loses his knight for naught! There is a wonder move behind!

Just when I thought the Mabira controversy had incensed Ugandans, His Excellency breaks things down in the New Vision as if to say: Before you make nonsense over this Mabira thing, Look! I gave away this, that and those and you didn't complain that much . You dare disrupt me!

Below is an excerpt and its URL in today's New Vision! It is a good read!

Yoweri Museveni Why I support Mabira give-away to Metha By Yoweri Museveni You must have been following the controversy surrounding our decision to give some forest land to the manufacturers. There are three forest lands that have, so far, been given out to the manufacturers. These are: - Some land in Kalangala for BIDCO, the palm oil project; - Some forest land in Mabira for Mehta to expand his sugar operations; and, - Earlier on, we had given the planted forest at Namanve for an industrial park. I have been involved in these land allocations. Why? It is on account of the urgent need for industrialising our very backward but rich country in terms of natural resources and raw materials.

Pearl of Africa my hoof

Mabira Forest! The events surrounding the Mabira Forest giveaway in Uganda have turned political, racist, emotional, chaotic name it. Ugandans have expressed them selves in the worst possible. Some members of parliament have begun the long rot in prison cells. Opposition leaders are exploiting the situation and their reward is a good bath with (liquid?)teargas. Will Mabira go or not? All national news rooms are portraying the reactivities in Uganda.

Well now that all is not right about Uganda at the moment, so are the Ugandan bloggers and websites. They are failures! I think Ugandans are sleeping in the blogging era! Few are blogging! And few are blogging with regularity!

So whence the comrade thinks otherwise, I begun to ponder who is a Ugandan blogger! I think a Ugandan blogger is a blogger keeping a journal the situation and events about Uganda and not necessarily a Ugandan native blogging!

I think a blogger should be identified according to the premises that cause the content of their blogs. The Danish national who left Copenhagen for Uganda is a Ugandan blogger! She is blogging about events in Uganda! Right? I would call the famed Hash of the White African site an African Blogger and a Kenyan Blogger! He blogs from a Kenyan and African perspective! The 27th Comrade! I think you are a Ugandan blogger! The Danish students offer a clue in their post

Mabira! Good governance my hoof!

Uganda has a daddy! He is giving away his legacies and Mabira forest! His out-law intends to grow sugar cane! Ugandans may demonstrate and die but planting a natural forest is quite easy!
Crazy as it might seem, the inevitable is deemed to happen! And if I were to believe the editors at the The Monitor, then M7 either has a unique vision or cares less if not both! Has Museveni really decided to give away Mabira.

"As to the courts, the judges are not the ones who liberated Uganda. Their vision can not be superior to the one of freedom fighters...those are my views and stand."

If such an excerpt is one from a president's letter to his premier, then fadal! Welcome to the reality in Uganda. With three Ugandans dead, Ugandans seeming like racist pigs for attacking Ugandans of Indian origin, and daddy my hoof still bent on awarding the forest to his environmental outlaw by popular opinion, then the out cries to save Mabira have yielded nothing but highlighted the leadership credentials of a despot in a banana republic!

From the Information Society perspectibe, I too ask! Where are the Ugandan bloggers and websites? My verdict is that Uganda has a hand full of bloggers and that 99p.c of Ugandan websites are failures one way or the other! Environmental websites in Uganda like the website of NEMA, and that of ACODE can not be relied upon to provide online timely information on what should be their niche in the fight to save Mabira - Mabira updates! There are afew Ugandan bloggers and most are sleeping as a group of Danish students could honestly say!

"We would like to get in touch with Ugandan bloggers to learn more about why they blog and what blogging can do - what kind of opportunities does blogging create for communicating in Uganda, and to the rest of the world? What effect does it have on Ugandan society, if any? We are the amateurs, and we need help from the professionals - you, the Ugandan bloggers. Only you can tell us what blogging means to you."