COLUMNISTS

By Deus Mukalazi Supporting the EITI is a good thing; understanding how it works is even better One of the resolutions passed by the 9th Parliament on Oct.11 was a demand for the government to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Seeing and hearing the members of Parliament chorus …

By Ahmed M. Mohamoud Silyano Obsessed with Mogadishu, the UN and AU are blind to growing sanctuaries of progress in the Horn – escpecially Somaliland Drought, famine, refugees, piracy, and the violence and terrorism endemic to the shattered city of Mogadishu, a capital ruined by civil war: these are the …

By Dani Rodrik But it is nearly impossible to be a Friedmanist in the original sense of the word Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth. Friedman was one of the twentieth century’s leading economists, a Nobel Prize winner who made notable contributions to monetary policy …

By Owen E. Sseremba Forest soils are only ‘fertile’ for one type of sustainable land use, that is; forestry. Several writers on the contested give away of Mabira forest have not given the public: obvious, basic knowledge, and facts about the soil ecology of rain forests. Mabira is a rain …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The lack of basic values as the basis of politics in Uganda is the source of our country’s constant state of crisis. “It is not easy to stand apart from mass hysteria, to argue against something that everyone – especially the most respected political leaders, academics …

By Eric Chivian and Rigoberta Menchú Amid the richness of the Ecuadorian Amazon, 30% of the population lives below the poverty line Charles Darwin would appreciate the irony of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Yasuní, home to one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world, is …

By Andrew M. Mwenda A man who can admit to being a liar should not  make claims and they are taken seriously Former director of cabinet in Rwanda, Theogene Rudasingwa, was a major item on BBC World Service. He claimed that President Paul Kagame boasted to him that it was …

By Joseph E. Stiglitz The prescription for what ails the global economy follows directly from the diagnosis: strong government expenditures As the economic slump that began in 2007 persists, the question on everyone’s minds is obvious: Why? Unless we have a better understanding of the causes of the crisis, we …

By Ban Ki-moon Women hold up more than half the sky and represent much of the world’s unrealized potential Late next month, a child will be born – the 7th billion citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The worst danger for the government in troubled times like these is to adopt a public policy position over matters it has no control over Uganda is in bad times and almost everything seems to be going wrong. The country’s electricity supply is drying out rapidly; …