By Joseph E.Stiglitz The two proposed new free-trade areas are designed to maintain special interests that dominate trade policy in the west Though nothing has come of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round of global trade negotiations since they were launched almost a dozen years ago, another round of …
Read More »Cultures for sale
By Henry Zakumumpa Ugandan cultural expressions are being ‘stolen’, repackaged and sold It was October 2010. President Yoweri Museveni was locked in a presidential election contest with Dr Kizza Besigye. A decisive blow, an event, an endorsement was needed by either camps to turn the tide. Then came the idea …
Read More »New guidelines on HIV treatment excite patients
By Agengella Abushedde But can caregivers raise the new money needed to implement them? News that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that antiretroviral therapy (ART) be given to HIV patients earlier has been welcomed by patients, medical personnel, and HIV/Aids activists. WHO based its recommendation on evidence that …
Read More »Fuel tanker inferno kills many
By Agengella Abushedde Mulago hospital struggles to treat survivors About 40 people are feared to have died in a fire believed to have started when a fuel tanker and van were involved in an accident at Namungoona on the Northern Bypass road. Many more people sustained burns and other injuries. …
Read More »Besigye’s last chance
By Haggai Matsiko FDC leaders face tough choices on Muntu On May 8, a top ring of supporters of Gen. Mugisha Muntu, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President held a very special meeting at an undisclosed place in Kampala. The meeting was exclusive to strictly top Muntu supporters because …
Read More »Ugandan shilling appreciates Vs US dollar
By Julius Businge The Uganda shilling appreciated during the week that ended July 5 to trade 2575/85 from 2590/00 per US dollar after policy makers maintained the key lending rate at 11% citing inflationary pressures. Traders said the market saw good dollar selling interest before energy and manufacturing sub-sectors’ demand squared off …
Read More »Who was swindling global fund money?
By Stephen Kafeero Details of fake cheques, a Shs 46 billion overpayment, and danger to HIV patients One person dies every 60 minutes in Uganda of HIV/AIDS related complications, according to estimates by the American-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which places annual deaths at 64,000. Some of these …
Read More »America’s slippery slope
By Andrew Mwenda How the US war on terror threatens to undermine the cause of individual liberty In 1948, George Orwell published his novel, 1984, a classic statement of the danger to individual liberty paused by increasing technological sophistication, especially in the hands of the state. The novel is set …
Read More »Uganda’s inefficiency and corruption
By Agaba Rugaba There is no paradox or contradiction with economic performance indexes Andrew Mwenda’s “Uganda’s Incompetence Paradox” in his column The Last Word (The Independent June 28) makes for interesting reading. He fronts the unorthodox argument of how economic performance indexes contradict the underlying assumptions that we hold about …
Read More »Will protests propel an East African ‘spring’?
By Muthoni Karubiu Increased demonstrations are harbingers of trouble for a region in transition Blood runs down the street. Dark and menacing. Young men gather in a tight circle. Chanting. At the centre of the crowd are a large sow and her piglets. The animals do not seem to notice …
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