By Joseph Rwagatare No country in this world has ever developed solely on ideas generated by its citizens. Talking or writing about famine can elicit unexpected reactions, including jokes. There was this one reported in the Tanzanian Mail on Sunday of August 7, 2011 by a correspondent on the current …
Read More »What can replace the dollar?
By Barry Eichengreen The US debt-ceiling fiasco has raised doubts about the advisability of holding dollars, while Europe’s debt crisis has fueled doubt on the euro’s survival. For more than a half-century, the US dollar has been not only America’s currency, but the world’s as well. It has been the …
Read More »Conflict between nation state and ethnic state
By Elia Kisembo The role of cultural leaders needs to be revised to cater for both the traditional and modern states. Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of pre-colonial political institutions across Africa. The governments of both Uganda and Ghana took a lead in constitutional reforms in the 1990s restoring …
Read More »Have your say on the Mabira forest give away
State House fails to show degraded part of Mabira forest After claiming that President Museveni wanted to give out the degraded part of Mabira forest for sugar growing expansion, State House officials were yesterday evening dumb-mouthed as they could not locate and show to a team of journalists that part of the …
Read More »Gen. Mugambagye on Museveni, Kagame rekindling relationships
By Agather Atuhaire President Yoweri Museveni’s recent state visit to the neighbouring Rwanda has excited prospects of improved bilateral relations. Rwandan High Commissioner to Uganda, Gen. Frank Mugambagye, tells The Independent’s Agather Atuhaire that the situation has not been as critical as some people painted it. What implications does President …
Read More »Give ordinary peasants a voice
By Andrew M. Mwenda Politics everywhere tends to be rigged in favour of the powerful. But in Uganda it has been made worse. Last week, the mass media reported that the vast majority of rural Ugandans are at risk of malnutrition, especially in the northern region. It was a simple …
Read More »Mubarak’s last laugh?
By Omar Ashour His public trial shows what united demands can achieve. Unity can bring justice and freedom later. Polarisation will bring none. August 3, 2011, will be remembered as a historic day in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak was put on public trial, together with his two sons and …
Read More »No hope after fire
By Julius Businge Parkyard vendors stare into an uncertain as government insists on relocating them It was 2:20 am on Sunday morning when Chief Fire Officer Simon Peter Musoke of the Uganda Police received the first call. “Owino is on fire,” the voice on the other end of the phone …
Read More »Why Rwanda’s story leaves the world divided
By Deogratias Harorimana The African development model is increasingly moving towards the Asian Tigers’ to seek solutions from within. When the North African public protests escalated into the greatest mass social revolution in the Arab world’s history, Western powers were surprised and many development partners remained cynical about its success. …
Read More »Mao cornered after court ruling
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi When the Court of Appeal last month struck out a notice of appeal filed by Norbert Mao and his Democratic Party (DP) leadership to protect Mathias Nsubuga’s 2008 election as Secretary General, it appears to have thrown him to the wolves. “The ruling has cast aside …
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