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“Optimism is what brings us to Rotary. But Rotary is not a place for those who are only dreamers. It is a place for those with the ability, the capacity, and the compassion for fruitful service.” Kampala, Uganda |RYAN HYLAND & ABBY BREITSTEIN | Sam F. Owori, 1941-2017. The Rotary flags in front …

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | On July 13, Samuel Frobisher Owori, a distinguished professional Banker and Rotarian died from complications related to surgery in Dallas, Texas in the United States. Known simply to many of his friends as “Sam,” Owori was poised to become the first Ugandan and second African …

Over ten million people will die from drug-resistant microbes every year by 2050 COMMENT |Jörg Reinhardt| In the first week of July, G20 leaders committed to working together to address one of the world’s most pressing and perplexing security threats: antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a fierce and evolving adversary against …

  When land is understood in cultural and political terms, its value is not only monetary COMMENT |MWAMBUTSYA NDEBESA| Tensions over land threaten state integrity in Uganda. The proposed constitutional land amendment seems to have generated a lot of passion and tension both in the political and non-political class in …

Changes to higher education can empower youth to drive continent’s economic transformation  COMMENT |KIM KERR| When South African university students took to the streets in 2016 as part of the “Fees Must Fall” protest movement, the “decolonisation of the curriculum” was among the movement’s chief concerns. It was a pivotal …

Zimbabwe: The opposition’s urban voter problem via @africaarguments  Harare, Zimbabwe | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS | As Zimbabwe heads for elections in 2018, all the economic warning signs are there for the ruling party. Under the ZANU-PF, the economy has gone into rapid decline and it’s possible that by the time the polls are held, the new currency …

Why citizens have good reasons to be fed up with their politicians and what needs to be done about it COMMENT |TAHIRU AZAAVIELE LIEDONG| A few months ago, a video in which a street boy blamed bad leadership for Nigeria’s socio-economic problems, went viral on social media in the country. …

To call China a colonial power is to diminish the true horrors that were faced by the colonised COMMENT|HANNAH RYDER|A few months ago, a New York Times magazine cover was emblazoned with the question “Is China the World’s New Colonial Power?” The notion that China is a twenty-first-century coloniser is …

Kampala, Uganda | J OLOKA-ONYANGO |  Recent newspaper reports about the issue of Tororo state that President Yoweri Museveni has directed that the matter be resolved using the “colonial boundaries” in order to determine where the municipality should be located in the event of a split of the district. Such …

Why raising micro, small and medium-sized enterprises might avert future backlashes by the poor on the rich COMMENT | Arancha Gonzalez| The fruits of economic growth are not being shared widely enough. In many advanced economies, the anaemic post-2008 recovery has benefited the relatively rich, while large numbers of households …